Police in the Bronx are searching for two men who they say carried out a bias attack, targeting a man with anti-LGBTQIA remarks before beating him so severely that he was hospitalized. The NYPD Hate Crime Task Force is now handling the investigation into the assault, which unfolded in the Mount Eden section, and detectives have released images in an effort to identify the pair.
According to investigators, the attack happened near Elliott Place and Jerome Avenue on June 25th. Police say the two men singled out the victim, a 43-year-old man, directing anti-LGBTQIA remarks at him before the encounter turned violent and they set upon him in the street, in a case that has now drawn the attention of the department's specialized hate crime investigators.
Police say the victim was punched, pushed, and kicked all over his body during the beating. At some point in the attack, according to authorities, the two men struck him in the head with a blunt object, an escalation that turned an already violent confrontation into one that left the 43-year-old with significant injuries at the Bronx intersection.
The victim was seriously injured in the assault and was taken to a hospital for treatment, police said. The severity of those injuries, along with the anti-LGBTQIA remarks that investigators say came before the beating, is a key reason the case is being pursued as a possible hate crime rather than treated as an ordinary street fight.
Both attackers fled after the beating and remain at large, according to police. Because the assault appears to have been driven by bias against the victim, the case was referred to the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force, the unit that takes on attacks in which detectives believe a person was singled out because of who they are.
Nearly a month after the June 25th attack, police have gone public with images connected to the case in the hope of tracking down the two men who are still being sought. Investigators are asking anyone who recognizes the men or who saw what happened near Elliott Place and Jerome Avenue that day to come forward with information.