Community Alert
Kevin Burns was attacked and raped Nov. 12 in Fort Lauderdale.
By DMITRY RASHNITSOV
Wilton Manors Police are investigating a series of attempted rapes and muggings that have caused grave concern in and around the small predominantly gay and lesbian community. At about 10 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 12, 23-year-old Kevin Burns was attacked and forcefully sodomized in the 1800 block of N. Dixie Highway in Fort Lauderdale, less than a block outside of Wilton Manors, according to a Wilton Manors Police Report.
According to Burns, he was walking down Dixie Highway when a 5-foot- 9-inch white male with a swimmer’s build, who appeared to be in his 40’s with dark hair and dark circles under his eyes, asked him for a cigarette.
“After I handed him a cigarette he smashed me over my head with a big rock,” Burns recalls. “He went and grabbed my shirt and ripped my shirt and used it to strangle me. As he was strangling me he stabbed me seven times with a hypodermic needle. I don’t know what was in the needle. I don’t know what it was for. I went to go scream and he took the shirt and he held it even tighter and said ‘shut the fuck up.’”
Burns said that he was terrified and could not believe what was happening to him, but that was just the beginning of the ordeal. Burns ended up falling to the ground.
“He starts pushing me over the wires, takes a knife out and cuts my belt,” Burns said. “Then he takes my pants and rips them completely off. With his bare hands he reached in and grabbed my underwear and just tore it off of me. He then put the knife back on my throat, made little slices on my neck, telling me to ‘shut up, shut up, be quiet, shut up.’”
Burns said the unidentified male continued hitting him in the head with a rock and pushing his face into the dirt.
“He tried to penetrate me once and it wasn’t working,” Burns said. “Then there was something slimy, spit or lube or something, he did get in, and with one searing, burning, unimaginable pain he was in. He just kept slamming my body and slamming and slamming and slamming, and he just kept pushing my face in the dirt telling me to ‘shut up’ and ‘not to cry’ and then it was over. He hit me one more time on the back of the head and told me not to move or he would kill me.”
Before the attack started, Burns was on the phone with his ex-boyfriend, who according to the police report, heard the entire attack take place. Burns remembers calling the police department, and initially Wilton Manors police arrived but could not touch Burns until Fort Lauderdale Police arrived because he was in their jurisdiction.
According to the Fort Lauderdale Police report, “the victim had dirt on his person consistent with a struggle occurring on the ground.
The victim had a bruise on the left side of his head. The victim had scrape marks on various areas such as stomach and back area. The victim had knife blade marks on the left side of his neck consistent with a knife being held against the surface of his neck and moving slightly during the incident.” Burns said he is taking anti-retroviral medication because doctors are worried he may have been infected with HIV infected blood from the hypodermic needle. Burns said officers told him they are investigating several attacks of a similar nature in the area.
“He took a piece of my heart, he took a piece of my soul, he took a piece of me,” Burns said. “He took a piece of who I am with him when he walked away from me that night and left me in the dirt. I’m not going to be one of those people who curls up in a ball and cries; I’m not going to let this ruin me. I will get my dignity back, I will get my heart and soul back, and the only way to do that is to make sure he pays.”
Mugging on the other side of town
On Nov. 5, in a completely unrelated incident on the other side of Wilton Manors, 23-year-old Ryan Dixon thwarted an attempted mugging by two black men who appeared to be in their late teens or early 20’s.
According to a Wilton Manors Police report, Dixon was walking south at the 2400 Block of NE Sixth Avenue near 26th Street when two black males approached him, and one of them punched him in the face. Dixon described the male who punched him as 5-feet-8-inches to 5-feet- 10-inches tall, 180-200 lbs, wearing a white tank top, black shorts with a white stripe down the sides and a green-colored hat. The second male was 5-feet-8-inches to 5- feet-10-inches tall, 200-210 lbs, wearing a white polo shirt that had horizontal yellow and blue stripes, and black shorts past his knees.
“When he punched me he knocked my glasses off and I yelled what are you doing,” Dixon recalls. “One of them told me to give them whatever I had in my pockets. I turned to walk away and one of them grabbed my backpack. I turned and punched them and they both backed off. They then walked away from me – not ran, but just casually walked away.” Dixon was able to reach police, but by the time they arrived, the two suspects were nowhere to be seen.
This is not the first incident of its kind on the same road, with at least three similar incidents reported to Wilton Manors Police within the last six months.
If you have any information about either the reported rape on Nov. 12 or the attempted mugging on Nov. 5, please contact the Wilton Manors Police at (954) 390- 2150
