Newark Triple Murders Latest: Victims Were in "the Gay Clique"

Two new developments in the case of three college students brutally slain in a Newark schoolyard. The sixth and final suspect remains in Maryland and WABC reports he will fight extradition. Twenty-four-year-old Nicaraguan national Rodolfo Godinez (left) has been identified as a "principal player" in the alleged gang initiation and triple murders of Dashon Harvey, Terrance Aeriel and Iofemi Hightower.

Godinez' half-brother is one of two 16-year-old suspects arrested in connection with the case. New reports at Blue Jersey—which has been monitoring the gay angle in the triple murders—say the juvenile suspect attended the same high school as one of the victims. "The were friends from high school, and like all high school kids, hung out in a certain clique. Some of the kids who hung with that clique were gay, some weren't, but it was widely known as "the gay clique." And at least one of the killers went to West Side High, knew the victims as belonging to that clique, and would likely have perceived them all as gay."

Keep in mind that New Jersey's hate crimes law is written to cover "not only crimes perpetrated because of a victim's sexual orientation, but also of their perceived orientation." Mayor Cory Booker says these shootings were not a hate crime motivated by race. That may be true, but, the sexuality of at least one of the victims—or perception of them all—may change that finding.

Homophobia is Killing Black People [Blue Jersey]
Sixth Suspect Fights Extradition [WABC]

Did You Read? ...
Newark Triple Murders an Anti-Gay Hate Crime? [R20]

Comments

[Doug Cooper-Spencer]

This story is tragic, not only in the obvious sense of the killing itself, but also because of the errant treatment given to minorities of color and sexual orientation. Keep us posted Rod.

[Derrick from Philly]

I still think about how horrifying it must have been for those young folks as they were being murdered...tortured and murdered. To see and hear you best friend being executed and to know that you are next is torture.

But I'm not going to let this incident turn me anti-Latino or anti-immigrants. It just means that we have some savages coming to this country that are as bad as some of our home grown savages.

Also, Dashon Harvey's father really disappointed me when he said he wasn't interested in the black gay activists (in Newark) who were trying to find out whether this was a hate crime. He said he wasn't interested in that angle of the story, nor was he insterested meeting the people who were working to bring that angle forward. Too many black families still don't want to know the truth about their gay sons and daughters--you got white, Asian and Latino families who feel that way too; but black families are so quick to DENY their child was gay, and get angry when you ask. You should be angry that your child was murdered because he or she WAS gay.