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Arrest warrants issued for 3 in beating of gay couple in Philly

An alleged assault on a gay couple in Philadelphia has sparked a push to add sexual orientation as a basis for hate crimes in Pennsylvania.

By Frances Burns

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Two young men and the daughter of a suburban police chief were charged Tuesday with beating a gay couple during a night out in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams announced arrest warrants for Philip Williams, 24, Kevin Harrigan, 26, and Katherine Knott, 24. Knott's father, Karl, is police chief in Chalfont.

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The three were expected to surrender Wednesday, police said.

Two men were beaten Sept. 11, one of them so badly his jaw had to be wired shut. After police released security video of a large group of "persons of interest," Internet sleuths identified them as a group from Bucks County, many of them graduates of a Catholic high school there.

The confrontation occurred in the upscale Rittenhouse Square neighborhood after the couple and the suburban group left Center City restaurants. Witnesses said the clean-cut suburbanites appeared drunk, and one asked one of the gay men if the other was his boyfriend, using an obscenity.

Lawyers of some of the suspects have suggested the victims escalated the confrontation.

The attack has sparked a move to add sexual orientation as the basis for a hate crime charge in Pennsylvania.

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