Two men in their 20s have been arrested and jailed in connection with a brutal gay-bashing attack on a 49-year-old gay man from College Point, N.Y. And the Queens Courier newspaper has gotten hold of video of the attack.
Daniel Aleman, 26, of College Point was arrested Sunday, Oct. 11 and has been charged with second degree assault as a hate crime – increasing the possible prison sentence from seven to 15 years. Bail is $40,000. Daniel Rodriguez, 21, also of College Point, was arrested by U.S. marshals on Tuesday, Oct, 13, at the home of a relative in Norfolk, Va. He is being held in connection with the assault, pending extradition to New York.
Jack Price remains on a respirator after days in a medically-induced coma in New York Hospital Queens. Police say Price, who is 5’6″ and weighs about 130 pounds, went to a 24-hour convenience store around 4:30 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 8, to get a pack of cigarettes. They say two men began yelling anti-gay slurs at Price as he entered the store, and when he left, they started yelling the slurs again. They then chased him down the street, knocking him to the ground where they punched and kicked him repeatedly,
Price managed to crawl 11 blocks to his home where he called 9-1-1. He was rushed to the hospital, suffering from multiple injuries that included two collapsed lungs, a lacerated spleen and a shattered jaw. All of his ribs were broken as well. Surgeons had to operate to repair his spleen and put a metal plate in his jaw.
In the video, recorded by one of several surveillance cameras recently installed by the College Point Board of Trade, one of the two attackers is seen chasing Price down the street, punching him and knocking him down several times before the second attacker joins the fray and begins to kick Price. The beating continues for some time, with one of the attackers at one point bending over Price and apparently taunting him verbally. The two walk away, and then return to where Price lies in the road to rifle through his clothing and assault him again.
