Man Wrote Homophobic Slurs On LGBTQ Bar’s Window: St. Pete Police

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — A man faces charges after writing homophobic slurs on the window of a St. Petersburg LGBTQ bar early Saturday, the St. Petersburg Police Department wrote in a Facebook post.

Surveillance footage at Cocktail St. Pete, 2355 Central Ave., shows the suspect writing on the bar’s window just before 6:30 a.m., Watermark reported.

He wrote, “Silly (expletive) (expletive) are for chics,” according to reports.

Staff at the bar noticed the slurs written on the window on Saturday around 4 p.m., police said.

The bar shared images of the suspect on social media and asked for assistance finding him.

William Yacko, 57, was arrested and charged with felony criminal mischief because of a prior conviction, according to SPPD. He was already booked into Pinellas County Jail on unrelated charges at the time of his arrest.

Because of the derogatory comments Yacko made toward the LGBTQ+ community, the charge had a hate speech enhancement added to it, police said.

“Our homophobe has been arrested or should we say he was already in jail and will now have a felony hate crime charge added,” Cocktail wrote in a Tuesday afternoon Facebook post.