This morning, two developing stories connected with the shootings of students at historically black Delaware State University. At the same time campus police search for a gunman who wounded two students overnight ... New Jersey gay activists say the recent murders of three college students in a Newark schoolyard should be investigated as a possible anti-gay hate crime.
Some background: In August, 20-year-old Dashon Harvey, 18-year-old Terrance Aeriel and 20-year-old Iofemi Hightower were shot execution-style during an apparent robbery attempt. Aeriel's sister, Natasha Aeriel, was shot in the head but survived. Harvey and the Aeriel siblings were students at the black college and Hightower was enrolling for the fall semester.
Newark gay activist James Credle contacted Mayor Cory Booker and the gay press because "at least one or more" of the victims were gay, he says, and "the city administration, the police and the media" have refused to release this information.
Keith Boykin also asks the same questions and describes the triple murder as "particularly suspicious" because it was "not gang-related or drug-related" and the alleged robbery yielded little monetary value. Boykin links to the MySpace of 20-year-old Dashon Harvey "who describes himself as a 'sometime runway model' and he is seen sitting in a photo studio holding up a fashion magazine."
Six male suspects were arrested in connection with the schoolyard case. Three of the six are juveniles and the shooter was an illegal immigrant from Peru and had been previously charged with allegedly raping a 5-year-old girl. No word yet on a possible link to the overnight campus shootings but police are working all angles.
UPDATE: Keith Boykin links to MySpace of victims.
UPDATE 2: CNN reports one Delaware State students says campus police are "investigating links" between the overnight shooting and the Newark shootings.
More New Jersey HERE.
Thanks Steven Goldstein!
NJ Groups: Triple Murder May Be Anti-Gay [Wa Blade]
2 Delaware Students Shots [WLKY]
Two Students Shot at Delaware State [Reuters]
Wow. Let's hope this is not the case.
Posted by: Erich H | 21 September 2007 at 08:03
Yes, let's hope this is not the case but if gay activists have this information, by all means this angle should be explored.
Any more news on the shooting?
Posted by: greg g | 21 September 2007 at 08:10
Well, the last thing we need is another college shooting. This is not very good news.
Posted by: timothy | 21 September 2007 at 08:18
Not the best news to wake up to on a Friday but let's see where this goes.
Posted by: anon | 21 September 2007 at 08:45
Wow
Posted by: rob a | 21 September 2007 at 09:38
If it wasn't race, or perceived sexual orientation, then it was the sadistic pleasure of committing torture and murder. I think it was all three.
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | 21 September 2007 at 10:07
I don't know how I feel about them sending letters to these kids' families. They are going through enough right now, and don't need to be placed in the middle of this regardless if they knew about or accepted their children's sexuality.
But this does warrant a question, would the reaction from the Black community been the same if this information had been released from the start? And would there have been such a push from the community to find the killers.
This was a major story on the radio down here in Atlanta for a week or more, and it's still talked about from time to time (unfortunately as a means to get people rilled up about illegal immigration), but I doubt it would have gotten any mention if the students' sexuality had been revealed.
Posted by: Cadence | 21 September 2007 at 12:40
Personally, I don't think it was an anti-gay murder. I think it was gang initiation. When it happened, I saw the myspace page of some of the young people, especially Dashon's and I thought the same thing as Kieth Boykin but I didn't connect their sexuality with the murders. To be honest, I hope that angle doesn't come out because then it will be ignored by the mainstream and the black media. Just like Michael Sandy.
Posted by: Dluv33 | 21 September 2007 at 13:05
My worst fears have been realized. When this story first broke no one said anything about the victims sexual orientation but I knew they were gay young men.
This is a hate crime, folks. I have read dozens of hate crime cases and this is the m.o.. They brutally murder the person(s) and then take whatever they can. The robbery is an afterthought. Read this article, it talks about elderly gay people but it applies to all gay people.
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:qDGxkFhnWrsJ:www.chronline.org/PDFs/Express%252010-2005%2520Article.pdf+gay+inequality+police&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=41&gl=us
Posted by: Robert | 21 September 2007 at 19:46
As black gay people, there is NOOOO way in hell that we should just ignore this situation. It's 2007 and we can't keep letting people think we are artificial and second class. We must break the stigma attached to our sexual orientation. This is a mandatory requirement.
Posted by: Mel Smith | 21 September 2007 at 20:58
Mel, you are absolutely right. We have to make ourselves heard.
Posted by: ca | 22 September 2007 at 11:46