2 Men Held in Attack on Woman, Gay Man : Crime: They are arrested after allegedly screaming slurs and beating the homosexual male in West Hollywood and then pummeling a female who tried to break up the assault.

Two men who allegedly screamed slurs and began beating a homosexual man in a West Hollywood park, then turned on a woman who tried to break up the attack, were arrested Sunday by sheriff’s deputies on suspicion of assault and committing a hate crime.

Witnesses told detectives that the attack began about 1:30 a.m. Sunday as the 29-year-old victim strolled through West Hollywood Park, said Sheriff’s Deputy John Ashley.

After yelling the epithet, the attackers started hitting the man in the face, stomach and arms, using their fists and a quart-size beer bottle, detectives said. A 36-year-old Van Nuys woman walking by tried to go to the man’s rescue, yelling “Stop it! Stop it!”

The assailants turned on the woman and knocked her to the ground with a blow to the jaw, Ashley said. One man straddled her and continued to pummel her with his fists, while the other repeatedly kicked her.

Witnesses who heard the victims’ cries chased off the attackers and then escorted the victims to a sheriff’s station across the street, Ashley said.

The man had a bruised and swollen face, and bruises on both arms, Ashley said. The woman had a badly swollen jaw and bruises on her back. The victims refused medical treatment at the scene.

Witnesses said the attackers had driven off in a battered white car, and shortly after 2 a.m. deputies searching for the assailants pulled over the car near Plummer Park. They arrested Charles Pierson, 20, of West Hollywood and Albert Lattimer, 19, of Los Angeles.

The men, who were being held in lieu of $12,000 bail, were booked on suspicion of committing a hate crime, assault causing bodily injury, and assault with a deadly weapon, Ashley said.

Gay community activists condemned the attack, which they said appears to be part of an increasingly violent trend.

“Chillingly, it sounds very common,” said David Smith, spokesman for the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center. “Mindless thugs are everywhere.”

The center’s Anti-Violence Project reported that 78 incidents of gay-bashing were recorded in 1991, a 50% increase over 1990.

“We are attributing this rise in violence to an increase of anti-gay rhetoric, which is coming from all different directions,” Smith said. “It creates a climate in which hate crimes are pervasive. . . . It’s disgusting.”