ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Surveillance cameras, technology, and community policing helped investigators solve a possible hate crime in a matter of hours.
Last Saturday, staff at Cocktail, a gay bar on Central Avenue in St. Petersburg noticed a hateful message including a homophobic slur written on the window.
They quickly scrubbed off the writing but surveillance cameras caught clear images of the person early Saturday morning writing the message and taking a photo of it before leaving. Staff reported the incident to police and a few days later, posted images from the surveillance camera on social media.
A few hours later police were able to identify the man accused as 57-year-old William Yacko who was already in jail on other charges. He's now been charged with felony criminal mischief and due to the nature of the incident, he could also be charged with a hate crime.
Part of the reason police were able to solve the crime so quickly was thanks to Major Markus Hughes, the department's LGBTQ liaison.
Hughes was tipped off about the incident by someone in the mayor's office and was able to quickly alert the intelligence unit about the surveillance video.
Hughes stopped by Cocktail Tuesday afternoon to collect more information and talk with staff. Roughly four hours later the crime was solved.
"I was surprised by the fast response," Melvin Theriault, the Director of Operations at Cocktail, said.
Major Hughes joined the St. Petersburg Police Department in 1999 and became the official LGBTQ liaison in 2014. As an out, gay officer it was a natural fit.
"Sometimes they don’t really want to come forward and report a crime because they’re uncomfortable, so I can be that person they can connect with," Hughes explained.
It certainly made a difference for staff at Cocktail.
"I think it’s pretty amazing to have an openly gay cop on the police force, it’s somebody in the community that understands exactly what we’re going through," Theriault said.
Employees are now back to business as usual, even holding their heads a little higher.
"We are very thankful that everybody came together to show people that love wins," Theriault said.
According to the FBI's brand new 2021 report, hate crimes showed an 11.6% increase from 2020. In 2020, the FBI's detailed look at Florida showed 60 percent of hate crimes targeted race, ethnicity, or ancestry followed by sexual orientation at 22 percent.