NEW YORK – Eight suspects arrested in connection with the brutal torture of two teenage boys and a man in an anti-gay attack last week were expected in court Sunday to face charges including robbery, assault and unlawful imprisonment as hate crimes.
Police said members of a gang that called the Latin King Goonies heard a rumor that one of their new recruits, a 17-year-old, was gay. They found the teen on Oct. 3 and then stripped, beat and sexually assaulted him until he confessed to having had sex with a 30-year-old man who lives a few blocks away, investigators said.
The group found a second teen they suspected was gay and tortured him, too, police said. Finally, they invited the 30-year-old to the house, telling him they were having a party. When he arrived, they burned, beat, sexually assaulted and tortured him for hours.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he was sickened by the accusations of violence “and saddened by the anti-gay bias.” The attacks followed a string of teen suicides around the country last month that were attributed to anti-gay bullying.
A ninth suspect was still at large. A lawyer representing him had arranged for his client to turn himself in, but the suspect never showed, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.