On September 9, outside the Georgetown University campus, near the intersection of 36th and O streets in the Georgetown neighborhood, a 19-year-old student was attacked. Police have confirmed that the victim suffered cuts and bruises to the face and also had a thumb broken in the attack. The victim said that the attacker was yelling homophobic epithets during the attack.

According to Lt. Alberto Jova of the Metropolitan Police Department's Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit, after the attack, the victim started looking on Facebook to see if he could by any chance find the person who attacked him; after finding a profile of someone who looked like his attacker, the police started the investigations and created a photo spread of possible suspects to show to the injured party. The victim picked Phillip Anderton Cooney's photo of Southlake, Texas from the photo spread and afterwards Cooney was taken into custody by a University Public Safety officer during an exam. This is the first time that a victim used Facebox to help the police identify a suspect, Lt. Jova added.

The U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Channing Phillips said that Cooney could face a sentence for a misdemeanor simple assault of up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine, but if the specification for a hate/bias crime is accepted, the maximum would be 270 days in jail and $1,500 fine. Georgetown University is also investigating the incident and will soon decide if Cooney has violated the University's Student Code of Conduct. Until the investigations are over, Cooney has been allowed to return to class; but if found guilty, Spokeswoman Julie Green Bataille said that could lead to any number of sanctions against Cooney, including expulsion from the Georgetown University. Due to the nature of the incident, neither Georgetown University nor the Metropolitan Police Department's Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit has released the victim's name. If Phillip Anderton Cooney will be found guilty, this will become the first known case of an attacker caught by the police with the help of a Facebook profile.