Police Issue Alert For Suspects Who Hurled Anti-Gay Slurs, Allegedly Assaulted Woman On Subway
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police have put out an alert asking the public to help find two men who hurled anti-gay slurs at a group of youth, and allegedly shoved a woman to the floor as she videotaped the incident.
The attack happened last Sunday night on a Queens-bound F train, police said. The YouTube video clip of the confrontation had drawn over 950,000 views as of Saturday.
The video, titled "LGBT Hate Crime New York Subway," was taken around 11:45 p.m. this past Sunday on a Queens-bound F train, and was posted two days later to a YouTube account named "Stopp Hating." The woman who took the video wrote in its description that the disturbance began with two men "loudly making homophobic comments like, 'Today was a scary day for me. There were f**s everywhere.'"
Police Issue Alert For Suspects Who Hurled Anti-Gay Slurs, Allegedly Assaulted Woman On Subway
A group of LGBT youth got on the train soon afterward, and the men began harassing them, "stating that the teens made them want to puke and that they would be killed if they were in Iran," the woman wrote.
Warning: Disturbing Language And Physical Violence:
The video begins with a man telling the group, "You're going to get f***ed like you've never been f***ed," while the group protests that his remarks amount to discrimination. The man goes on to remark, "Did you hear what the Supreme Court did" and make reference to f***ots," before the woman holding the camera appears to be shoved to the ground.
"Seeing that he was being recorded, the first assailant lunged at me, violently grabbing my arms while trying to steal away my phone. One of the youth took the phone from me temporarily to protect it and told the assailant he shouldn't attack a woman," the woman wrote. "When the assailant threatened to punch me, I took the phone back and ran to the other side of the train to push the emergency button and alert the authorities. At this point the second assailant got up and came towards me, grabbing my body and hands to try and get the phone to destroy the evidence. I yelled and told him I was an attorney."
Police said the woman suffered minor injuries to her hands, and the men got off at the Roosevelt Avenue station in Jackson Heights.
Police have released a photo of the suspects, who are also seen clearly in the video.
The anti-gay slurs and other language used by the men was not mentioned in the police alert.
The Anti-Violence Project, an LGBT advocacy group, said in response to the video that officials there have also reached out to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the Queens District Attorney's Office, Queens City Councilman Ruben Wills, and advocacy partner Make the Road New York in an effort to find the suspects.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the suspects was asked to call the NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS, log onto the Crime Stoppers Web site, or text tips to CRIMES (274637) and enter TIP577.
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