This just happened to a friend of some friends here in Toronto. They are devastated.

UPDATE 20 OCT 8am - Ryan Cooke didn’t know that his fiancé had been brutally murdered seven hours earlier when he posted on his Facebook page: “HEY...does anyone know where Chris is?” at 10:04am on Sun Oct 18.

Cooke had lost his phone and no one could reach him. Police had been called to the corner of Adelaide St E and Victoria St at 3:05am by several eyewitnesses who had seen Cooke’s fiancé Chris Skinner attacked by a group of men who beat him to the ground then ran over him with an SUV. Skinner was taken to hospital where he died of his injuries.

Skinner is the 43rd homicide of 2009 in the city of Toronto. Hours earlier, Skinner and Cooke had been celebrating Skinner’s sister’s birthday in the entertainment district. Skinner decided to leave the party and walk home alone. Details of the attack are being kept under wraps as the police investigation continues, but it is known that Skinner got into an altercation with the occupants of a black SUV before he was beaten, and that after running him over the attackers fled east on Adelaide in their SUV.

The number of attackers has not been confirmed, but it is believed there were at least two and possibly three or four. The make and model of the SUV and its licence plate number were not yet known, but police will be combing over surveillance video from the area to see if it can be determined.

Friends of Skinner suspect that the killing may have been a hate crime, but police haven’t drawn that conclusion.

“No, there’s not at all any indication that there were homophobic elements to the attack,” says Det Stacey Gallant.

But that doesn’t sit well with Skinner’s friends who are struggling to find a motive for the murder.

"Not a single person who knows him would say that he would cause a ruckus,” says Skinner’s long-time friend Craig Lund, “but he would stand up for himself if he was called on anything. I find that Toronto Police very rarely jump to the conclusion that homophobia exists.”

Skinner, 27, lived with Cooke and they planned to get married next summer. He worked as a graphic designer at Endeavour Marketing. Cooke could not be reached for comment at press time.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Stacy Gallant at 416−808−7410 and Detective Doug Dunstan at 416−808−7406, or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416−222−8477 or online at www.222tips.com.

http://www.xtra.ca/public/National/Gay_man_murdered_in_downtown_Toronto-7665.aspx

this young man, Chris Skinner. I'm sorry.

are hate crimes on the rise, or does it just seem that way?

I'm sorry that there are so many sick, mean people in this world. Sending good thoughts to family and friends.

simple robbers and thugs do not run over their victims with SUVs after already beating them to the ground. To actually get in the SUV and run a person over implies a deep despise or hatred IMO.

RIP Chris Skinner - one day their will be justice.

"the number of other people randomly beat up in drive by crimes and then run over indicates that many were not gay" or something along those lines.

What a brain dead non-factoid about whether it was a hate crime or not. Of course it was - somebody pull the homicide rolls for Toronto and figure it out.

It is so hard to read stories such as this about what are supposedly oasis for us.