New York City Police Arrest Eighth Suspect In Horrific Gang Anti-Gay Hate Attacks; Politicians And Ministers Tour Scene Of Crime; Community Calls For Healing

New York City police announced the arrest Saturday of the eighth suspect in connection to the callous attack on two teenage boys and an adult male inside an abandoned home in the Bronx borough, a ninth suspect still at large, the New York Times reporting that city leaders said the city would not tolerate the “vicious” hatred that motivated the brutality that took place over two days. NYC Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said that several of the suspects gave statements implicating themselves in the crime; Kelly asked if the men had expressed remorse for their actions saying “I wouldn’t call it remorse.” Seven of the nine suspects were arrested Thursday and Friday, ranging in age 16 to 23 years old, all charged with assault, robbery, unlawful imprisonment, all with additional hate crime stipulations. Three of the eight in custody, 23 year old Ildefonzo Mendez, 21 year old David Rivera, and 17 year old Nelson Fau are also charged with committing a criminal sex act. The police say that the nine – all members of a gang they called the Latin King Goonies, angered that a teenaged male who sought to become a member, was gay, lured a 30 year old Ecuadorian gay male and the two 17 year olds they suspected of having sex with him to the vacant house, held them, beating them repeatedly for hours, sodomizing one of the teens with the wooden handle of a toilet plunger, sodomizing the 30 year old with a small wooden baseball bat, as well as burning his genitals with cigarettes. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Saturday “Like many New Yorkers, I was sickened by these anti-gay crimes. The heartless men who committed these crimes should know that New Yorkers will not tolerate them.” Christine Quinn, the openly gay City Council speaker, who toured the area along with Bloomberg, New York Governor David A. Paterson, and other politicians and ministers, said “These crimes are not jokes. They are not games. They are things that eat away at the fabric of our city.”