COURTESY ST. LOUIS POLICE
Charles Patton was arrested on Friday.
An Illinois man punched through a railing, kicked in a door and shouted "I'll slit your throat" over and over during a homophobic rampage at the home of gay Soulard residents, police say.
Charles Patton, 33, apparently targeted the house in the 1300 block of Sidney Street because the porch had been painted like a rainbow flag, according to court records.
He allegedly showed up in a fury on the night of May 24. Surveillance video showed him punch out a railing spindle on the porch of the two-family house before kicking at one exterior door, and then another, eventually forcing his way inside through second entrance, police say. Investigators later discovered scuff marks and on an interior door of the house.
He shouted gay slurs and threats throughout the incident, police say.
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The homeowner told police he had painted the rainbow design on the porch to make it welcoming to his daughter, who is gay and stays in one half of the house, and another gay tenant who lives in the other half.
KMOV reported that witnesses told police Patton was really drunk and had been acting erratically earlier in the night at Trueman's Bar, which is just down the street. He later returned to the bar, got in a fight and was knocked out from a fall, the station reported.
Patton was arrested Friday on charges of property damage motivated by discrimination, trespass motivated by discrimination and second-degree burglary. He was jailed on $50,000 cash-only bond.
His listed address is in Salem, Illinois. Public records show he had previously lived in St. Charles. He was convicted in 2009 of willful discharge of a firearm in San Bernardino, California. He was also convicted in 2013 of driving while intoxicated in Marion County, Illinois.
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