A man accused of assaulting a gay man with a wooden club after setting up a meeting with him through the dating app Grindr is accused of a federal hate crime.
The FBI arrested Daniel Andrew McGee, 22, on Monday and he made his first appearance in U.S. District Court in Eugene in the afternoon. He’s accused of targeting and assaulting the man because of his sexual orientation, according to federal prosecutors.
McGee was ordered to remain in custody with a detention hearing set Tuesday afternoon.
Eugene police were called to an apartment about 11:30 a.m. on July 5 on reports of a person screaming for help after an assault. Police found a man with life-threatening head injuries and had him taken by ambulance to PeaceHealth Riverbend Hospital, according to a federal complaint.
The man suffered multiple cuts to the sides and back of his head and a large section of his scalp was missing, FBI agent Spencer Anderson wrote in the complaint.
McGee was in the apartment covered in blood, the complaint said. McGee told police he had met the man on the dating app and went to the stranger’s apartment “because he knew that demons would be there” and that his nightmares told him he needed to kill the man, the complaint said.
McGee, according to the FBI agent, told officers he struck the man with a tire thumper and his fists because he intended to “slay” him and “get rid of him,” the complaint said. A tire thumper is used by truck drivers to check tire pressure and looks like a mini baseball bat.
A further investigation found McGee used the screen name “st8 curious” to connect with the man on Grindr and the two exchanged messages on Snapchat in which McGee sought to confirm that they would be alone when they met, according to the complaint. The victim later found a bag left at his apartment by McGee that held a kitchen knife, a folding knife, bottle of Comet cleaner, a portable vacuum and a large roll of trash bags, the complaint said.
McGee’s father told police that his son has autism and that he was unaware that his son had left their house that night. McGee’s father told officers he was concerned about his son’s mental health, that his son had been on and off certain medications, the complaint said.
Investigators obtained a warrant and searched the son’s cellphone and bedroom computer. McGee had previously downloaded videos of gay people being harmed and assaulted, had done an extensive internet search into homosexuality and gay life, as well as how to get away with murder and dispose of bodies, the FBI agent wrote in the complaint.
From October 2020 through July 5, McGee accessed pages on “gay bashing” and “Homosexual Agenda” on Conservapedia, an English-language, wiki-based online site, the complaint said. He also ordered a tire thumper and a wig from Amazon in June, according to the complaint.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai ordered McGee held Monday night as a danger to the community and a risk of fleeing if released, noting the nature of the accusations, his possession of a weapon, his alleged violent behavior and mental health issues.
