Category Archives: Crime
Teen Smashes Window at Stonewall Inn
A teenager irate he was thrown out of Greenwich Village’s historic Stonewall Inn, the birthplace of the LGBT civil rights movement, bashed in the bar’s window with a baseball bat early Saturday, officials said.
The attack did nearly $7,000 worth of damage to the window and the bar’s neon sign, authorities said
William Gomez, 19, was hanging out in the bar with co-workers when he was thrown out of the legendary Christopher St. watering hole by a bouncer, according to cops and Gomez’s mother.
He allegedly returned with a baseball bat about 4:30 a.m. and smashed the bar’s window with it, punching holes in the glass and damaging the neon sign that sits in the window.
Cops arrested Gomez near the scene, charging him with criminal mischief and reckless endangerment.
Gomez was freed after his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on Saturday evening.
He is not facing hate crime charges, since it does not appear that the attack was motivated by the bar’s significance in the gay rights movement, sources said.
Gomez’s mother, who declined to give her name, told the Daily News her son isn’t gay and his girlfriend is expecting their child soon. (?? Seriously??? with that shirt??) She said he went to the bar with a group of co-workers. Read more at Daily News.
Suspect Sought in Gay Bashing
The suspect was captured on film violently beating a gay couple over the head with a chair inside the restaurant on 8th Avenue and 23rd Street after an altercation in which homophobic slurs were allegedly used.
The incident is being investigated as a possible hate crime.
Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS. The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers Website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or texting their tips to 274637(CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
See video footage of suspect HERE
Information Sought on Gay Bashing
Last week, a couple was coming home after celebrating their tenth anniversary when a man approached them and started to beat J.P. Masterson in the face. “I fucking hate faggots” the assailant told Masterson and his partner, Peter Moore as they waited on the platform for a subway in New York City’s Greenwich Village. The couple says there were about 50 people at the busy subway station, but not one bothered to help.
The police are investigating the incident as a bias crime. The suspect, according to the New York Times, had first asked the couple if they were gay.
Masterson, whose nose ands eye socket were broken and eye badly bruised, is 39 and reportedly lives in Clifton, New Jersey, but says he grew and came out in the Village.
“Police describe the suspect as a white male, 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighs around 170 pounds and is in his late 20s. He may also have a thick Polish accent,” NJ.com reports:
Anyone with information about the attack is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS, visit the Crime Stoppers website or text tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
The New York City Anti-Violence Project announced they “will be doing outreach next Wednesday, March 12th in the West Village and in and around the West 4th Street subway station, where we will talk with community members to increase awareness about this incident and provide people with safety information.” You can contact RJ Mendoza, AVP’s Hate Violence Community Organizer, at rmendoza@avp.org.
