News: Hate Crime on Long Island
(Long Island, N.Y.) An eighteen-year-old boy from Queens was brutally attacked and killed after attending a birthday party advertised on Facebook. His attackers were a gang of boys between the ages of sixteen and seventeen who had crashed the party. Witnesses say the boys were chanting homophobic slurs at the victim and hosts of the party.
The party was intended for one of the hosts’ twentieth birthday, who along with his partner, has been described as being in an openly gay relationship. The eighteen-year-old victim and recent high school graduate was attending the party which was held at an abandoned house without electricity. The house was a known hangout spot for teens and young adults, and those who attended were charged a $7 cover fee.
Crashing the party were a group of teens who refused to pay at the door and forced themselves past the entrance. They went on to cause a great disturbance by breaking windows and writing hateful, homophobic words on the walls in red maker. They also taunted and teased members of the party, calling them slurs, flashed gang signs, picked fights, and posed a threat toward their victim.
The victim, wanting to avoid an altercation, fled the scene at roughly one that morning with his girlfriend. He was chased by the gang who eventually declared he had stepped into “their hood.” Though the victim’s girlfriend also attended the party, the boys continued to call him derogatory and homophobic names while chanting and tantalizing the frightened teen. This turned physical by punching, kicking, and stomping on their victim.
The beating wasn’t over until some of the boy’s unleashed metal pipes, bats, and canes on their victim, causing so much damage that blood smeared onto the weapons. Police recovered a bloody pipe found at the scene near 90th Street in Woodhaven. At least five suspects have been associated with this crime.
Though the incident occurred on Saturday, the boy perished on Monday after he was taken off life support at Jamaica Hospital. The sixteen-year-old involved with the crime was from the Bronx, and the rest of the suspects are seventeen and from Queens. One of them posted something on Facebook, bragging about the beating he gave the victim while using homophobic slurs to address him.
The boys are being charged with manslaughter, possession of weapons, and gang assault. Many question why they aren’t being charged with murder, considering the nature of their crimes. Some sources say that enough information in the case is present to charge it as a hate crime.
Bail was set between $100,000 and $200,000 during Monday’s arraignment at Queens Criminal Court. The suspects were taken into police custody shortly after the crime. Some were found with blood on their clothing and sneakers, which police believe belonged to their victim. One of the suspects even had the victim’s hat in his possession when police accosted him; it was a baseball hat with the logo of the Atlanta Braves.
The victim, along with his family, had moved to Queens three years ago and he had aspired to work in his family’s ice cream business after graduating high school. Friends and neighbors of the victim say he was handsome, friendly, and polite. Many wonder why the victim was targeted for a possible hate crime against homosexuals, being that he had a girlfriend and was not gay.
