Downtown Dallas stabbing victims say they were targeted for being gay

Two of the women attacked Sunday in downtown Dallas say they believe they may have been targeted for being gay.

The women were on their way to the gay pride parade on Sunday afternoon when a homeless man beat and stabbed them. The three women are good friends -- two of them are gay.

They say the man was acting erratically, but it's what he said that makes them believe he may have singled them out for a reason.

“He was yelling from a distance so I thought maybe, oh he's going to ask us for money,” said Love Seiber. She spoke to FOX4 on the phone from Oklahoma, where she's recuperating at home after a vicious attack that left her face and head in stitches.

“I've really just been staying in the house and avoiding people because my face looks really bad. The scaring is what I'm worried about most, having a huge scar on my face,” Seiber said.

Seiber was with her friends Krystle Seats and Vanessa Stepney. Police said Branden Holbert, 22, zeroed in on the women near Main and Ervay Streets. Holbert yelled and then punched Seats before chasing her and Seiber into a building, where he began stabbing them in the elevator.

“Everybody was screaming and I didn't know how we were going to get out of the situation,” Seiber said. “That was the scary part, because there was nobody there to help us. It was like we were just getting attacked.”

Stepney, who is not gay but witnessed her friends being attacked, also spoke to FOX4 by phone and said Holbert had choice words for her friends.

“He was like, ‘I see what you are doing, you are the child of Satan and God sees what you are doing and you guys are going to go to hell,’” Stepney said.

Police say they are not treating the incident as a hate crime and public police documents do not reflect any alleged homophobic ranting by Holbert, but do emphasize Holbert’s erratic behavior.

Seiber said she's shaken -- not just from being attacked, but possibly targeted.

“Yes I do think he should be charged with a hate crime,” Seiber said. “My family definitely thinks he got off a little too easy.”