A boat carrying passengers who alleged harassed a family flying pride flags on their vessel exploded on Moses Lake in Washington state over the weekend, BuzzFeed News reported.
“These people harassed my family because we were flying gay pride flags,” a Twitter wrote. “Then, their boat literally blew up!”
The video, which has gone viral on Twitter and TikTok shows a woman in the boat giving the middle finger to the family with the pride flags.
A passenger who asked to be identified as Robbie, told BuzzFeed that the boat harassing them drove around them six or seven times, causing extensive waves.
“They then attempted to speed away as they left a large cloud of smoke surrounding the area we occupied,” said Robbie. “After a moment, we heard a loud backfire and a sputter come from the boat. Though I could not see the boat, in the direction, I could see a cloud of black smoke rising quickly.”
The occupants of the burned boat swam to the boat they had been harassing for help.
The Grant County Sheriff’s Office told BuzzFeed that the boat fire began Sunday around 7:45 p.m. Authorities extinguished the fire once they arrived on the scene and towed the remains of the boat back to shore.
“The passengers from the boat that caught fire swam and boarded the boat they were circling,” said the sheriff. “Our agency has reached out to the owner of the boat with the gay pride flag to gather further information to determine of a crime was committed. To this hour, we have not heard from them.”
The sheriff’s office could not confirm that the boaters had been harassing the other vessel, but said they are now investigating the incident.
“As of right now, we are trying to make contact with the occupants of the vessel being circled so we can interview them to find out what happened,” they said in a statement. “We would like to know more, and once we can interview people, we will be able to know more without relying solely on a brief video.”
In the meantime, the family is back on the water flying their pride flag.
[Featured image: Cosmic Robbie/ Twitter]
