Brooklyn Man Battered in Hate Crime
Barie Shortell required 10 hours of surgery to repair his jaw and three metal plates in his head following an antigay attack last month in Willamsburg, Brooklyn, one of New York City’s most popular neighborhoods for gay residents and nightlife.
According to The Brooklyn Paper, six teenagers wearing hooded sweatshirts pinned Shortell to a wall on the night of February 22, fracturing his jaw, nose, and eye sockets. He had crossed from N. 4th Street to Wythe Avenue to avoid a menacing taunt from the group.
“I feel pretty confident they perceived me as a gay man and attacked me, but I can’t understand why they did what they did,” Shortell told TheBrooklyn Paper. “I looked horrible. Blood was everywhere.”
One of the surgeons who operated on Shortell compared the impact to a car accident. The 29-year-old faces $100,000 in medical debts with no health insurance, prompting his friends to hold a benefit for him this Wednesday.
No suspects have been arrested in the case, which police classify as a hate crime.
News of the vicious attack arrives as the area mourns Anthony Collao, a Long Island teenager who was beaten to death with a pipe in an antigay attack at a party in Queens over the weekend.
Teenager Beaten to Death by Antigay Party Crashers
Four teenagers who crashed a birthday party in Queens, N.Y., are suspected of beating a man to death after shouting antigay slurs.
The four — Nolis Ogando, Christopher Lozada, and Luis Tabales, all 17 and from Queens, and Alex Velez, 16, of the Bronx — are accused of showing up at the party, refusing to pay the cover charge, and storming in.
According to the party’s hosts — two gay men — the teenagers smashed windows, flashed gang signs, and yelled antigay slurs.
Sensing trouble, 18-year-old Anthony Collao, who had recently graduated from high school and who pals say was straight, left the party with a friend. According to a source, he was chased by the gang, pinned against a car, and punched, kicked, and beaten “within an inch of his life" with a pipe.
He died Monday at Jamaica Hospital after two days on life support.
The suspects were arrested Saturday night shortly after the incident. At the time of their arrests, one of the alleged perpetrators was wearing Collao's baseball cap and the others were drenched in blood, reports the New York Daily News.
Collao’s friend Pete Thearle, 18, said of the accused killers, "I hope they go away for the rest of their lives. But that won't bring him back."
ref: here and here
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