Steward Butler, a running back for the Marshall University football team in Huntington, West Virginia, has been arrested and charged with battery after beating a gay couple he saw kiss on the street, WSAZ reports:

Investigators said the couple involved, Zackery Johnson and his partner, Casey Williams, were walking down the street, when Butler spotted them embracing and kissing and began yelling slurs and punched them.

Huntington Police said Butler was, at first, in a car with two other Marshall football players.

“He was traveling in the vehicle, he saw this, saw these two individuals walking, saw them give each other a kiss. He had the driver stop the car, he gets out, confronts him and said some choice, some bad choice words,” HPD Detective Chris Sperry said. The couple tells us they were in town visiting friends, and were headed to their hotel after dinner and a few bars.

Investigators said after Butler punched the two men, in an apparent hate crime, the other two Marshall players told him to stop and leave.

Huntington Police said Butler claimed the attack was out of self-defense and that none of the men in the confrontation knew each other.

Watch WSAZ’s report, AFTER THE JUMP…