admin @ Tue, 2005-10-11 11:12
Days after police announced they were looking for information on a Melville robbery apparently motivated by hatred for homosexuals, there was another attack.
The scenarios were similar, but Sunday night's incident ended with the arrest of two men, charged with first-degree robbery and unlawful imprisonment as a hate crime, Suffolk police said. A third man is still being sought.
In both incidents - the first was Oct. 3 - the victims arrived at the Long Island Expressway Exit 49 park-and-ride lot, where they met Victor Lopez, 18, of 3043 Great Neck Rd., Copiague, police said. Lopez promised the men sex and told them to follow him to an industrial park near Duryea Road and Route 110, said police, who have described the park-and-ride as a place men cruise for anonymous sex with other men.
The other man arrested Sunday in addition to Lopez was David Andrade, 19, who has the same address as Lopez. Their relatives could not be reached for comment yesterday. They will be arraigned today.
Both victims, whom police would not identify because they were involved in a hate crime, were taken to a wooded area where two others emerged, one with a gun. The three attackers bound the victims at gunpoint with duct tape, demanded their bank card numbers and called them by derogatory words for homosexuals.
When the latest victim refused to relinquish security numbers, one of the attackers pulled the gun's trigger without firing it, Hate Crimes Bureau Det. Sgt. Robert Reecks said, "saying the next time would be the real one."
Last week's attack involved a Nassau man, 43, who waited until the following morning to report the crime, fearing threats that his family would be killed if he went to police. After Sunday's incident, the victim, 39, also from Nassau, immediately called 911, Reecks said.
The man was able to give a description of the car and got a partial license plate number, Reecks said. Later, a police canine unit pulled the car over when they saw it going south on Route 110 in Farmingdale. Both victims went to the Second Precinct in Huntington and identified Lopez and Andrade, Reecks said. Lopez and Andrade confessed to police that they committed the crimes because they hate gays, Reecks said.
They told police the third man goes by the name "El Negro" ("The Black Man" in Spanish) Reecks said, adding that preliminary information from immigration officials indicates Lopez and Andrade are here illegally from Honduras.
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