A prominent gay rights activist is being remembered in Halifax tonight. Raymond Taavel died yesterday after being brutally beaten. Police are now trying to figure out if this was a hate crime.
Some 500 people filled Gottingen Street in Halifax Tuesday night to mourn the man who had been beaten to death there earlier that morning.
Raymond Taavel, 49, a community activist who fought for gay rights and electoral reform, was found beaten and bloody on the street outside a gay bar in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Witnesses reportedly told police they saw a man yelling “faggot” before getting into an altercation with two smaller men, one of whom fled. Police and emergency crews arrived soon after, but Taavel died at the scene. Cops used a police dog to track down the suspect, hiding nearby.
Taavel’s friends say he died trying to break up a fight between the other two men, and many people are labelling his murder a hate crime — a theory policewould not confirm or deny.
“We are exploring all possibilities with regards to motives,” Const. Brian Palmeter said.
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