In a story that is becoming all to familiar, a 26-year-old man was charged with numerous felonies, including first-degree murder and four firearm counts, for allegedly assaulting two gay men in Detroit, one of whom died. by luring his victims using the gay sex hook-up app GRINDR.

Demetris Nelson used GRINDR to target 31-year-old Brian Anderson and 26-year-old Malcolm Drake focusing on them because of their sexual orientation. During an attempted robbery on July 6, Nelson shot and killed Anderson and critically wounded Drake.

“The allegations are that social media contacts were used to target, contact, rob, fatally shoot one gay man, and seriously wound another gay man,” Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a statement. “To some, this will be just another hateful and violent act in America. They will read about this case and continue to go about their day. To me, that is quite tragic.”

The case was assigned to Special Prosecutor Jaimie Powell Horowitz of the Fair Michigan Justice Project (FMJP)

In March of 2019 a Texas man was accused of using GRINDR to lure 9 gay men to a vacant apartment in Dallas where they were beaten, robbed and sexually assaulted.