Monday, December 08, 2008

More on Bushwick bias crime against Ecuadorean brothers

Mike Lavers from EDGE covered today's press conference ("Brooklyn hate crime leaves man in critical condition"). From the article:
A 31-year-old Ecuadorian man remains in critical condition at Elmhurst Hospital after four men allegedly attacked him and his brother with baseball bats and bottles near their Bushwick home early Sunday morning in what police are investigating as a anti-gay and anti-Latino hate crime

...This attack comes a month after a group of seven Long Island teenagers allegedly attacked Ecuadorian immigrant Marcelo Lucero in Patchogue. Local authorities have charged Jeffrey Conroy with second-degree murder as a hate crime for allegedly fatally stabbing Lucero in the chest on Nov. 8. They also charged him and his alleged co-conspirators with hate crime and conspiracy counts.
The New York Times City Room blog has additional details ("Bushwick beating investigated as a hate crime"):

A law enforcement official said that at about 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, the man and his brother, described by officials as Ecuadorian immigrants, were walking at Kossuth Place and Bushwick Avenue when a carload of men pulled up nearby. The brothers, who had been drinking, were walking “arm-in-arm” to support each other, the official said.

A man who got out of the car yelled anti-gay and anti-Latino epithets at the brothers, then broke a bottle over the 31-year-old man’s head, the official said.

His brother ran, and at least three other men who were in the car set upon the 31-year-old, beating him with a baseball bat and kicking him, the official said. The beating stopped when the brother returned, holding his cellphone, and told the attackers he had just called the police, the official said. All the attackers were black, the official said.
UPDATE: The local ABC news station says the following video report [h/t NG]
  • The two brothers were a block away from reaching home when they were attacked
  • Their family lives in Ecuador and has been notified about the attack, they must now decide whether one of their sons, who is at Elmhurst Hospital, will be kept on life support.
  • At today's press conference, Councilmember Diana Reyna said that the family has decided to not allow him to suffer"
  • There is a vigil planned for tomorrow evening set to begin outside Elmhurst Hospital
UPDATE 2: The Times now has a full report online ("Attack on Ecuadorean Brothers Investigated as Hate Crime"). It identifies the brother who is in life-support tonight as Jose Sucuzhanay (above), the owner of a real estate agency.

UPDATE 3: On December 9th, there were reports that the most seriously injured of the brothers had died victims had died but those reports have now been retracted.

4 comments:

Maegan la Mala said...

Do we know what time the vigil starts?

Blabbeando said...

No. The vigil report comes from that ABC News video available at the link above but they do not mention who is organizing it or the starting time.

Anonymous said...

I heard on the Brian Lehrer show that there would be a march from somewhere on Bogart Street to the site of the murder on Kossuth and Bushwick Aves. Does anyone know details? If so, can I help organize the thing? I was going to try to organize something myself, and to invite Speaker Quinn and various other public figures to come, but it sounds like someone's already working on it....

mikki said...

From what I understand, the vigil starts at 7 pm, at 49 Bogart Street (the Archive Cafe). Then everyone will walk to the scene of the crime.