Man Attacks Woman With Stranglehold, Antigay Slurs Over Parking Job

A Maine woman says she was punched, put in a chokehold, and subjected to antigay slurs by a man in a parking lot.

The victim, Alana Reali, shared the harrowing experience, which allegedly occurred outside a Shaw's supermarket in Portland, in a Friday Facebook post that included images of the "homophobic" attacker and his license plate.

"He attacked me after calling me a 'fucking faggot' put me in a chokehold and started punching me in the back of the head," Reali wrote. "Thankfully there were people there as I was screaming bloody murder. If no one was around this man would've killed me."

The man was identified as Michael Roylos, the 63-year-old founder of Sidewalk Buttler, a receptacle for tobacco products in public spaces. A Portland police spokesperson told the Bangor Daily News that Roylos has been summoned for aggravated assault, criminal threatening, and other charges.

In the incident, according to BDN, Roylos confronted Reali after she "pulled her vehicle into one parking spot between two large trucks and slowly crossed the dividing line into another empty spot." He told her that "she can't drive through parking spaces like that," as recounted by Reali, and "that was the last time [she will] get away with that."

An agitated Roylos began hurling antigay slurs in the confrontation, according to Reali's account. When Reali moved to retrieve the phone from her car to record Roylos, he allegedly became physical and yelled multiple death threats. "I'll kill you, faggot," he told her, according to Reali, who said she was in a chokehold at the time.

Passersby called the police after witnessing the incident. Reali, after "pleading for my life," broke free and remained separate from Roylos waiting for law enforcement. She was treated for at Maine Medical for injuries, including a hurt ankle.