Arrest After Fatal "Anti-Gay" Brooklyn Baseball Bat Attack

Finally. Police arrest one man and are looking for another suspect in the tragic case Jose Sucuzhanay, the 31-year-old Ecuadoran immigrant viciously beaten to death with a baseball bat.

Twenty-five-year-old Hakim Scott was arrested near his Bronx home. On December 7, police say Sucuzhanay was walking arm in arm with his brother to keep warm when he was beaten and kicked by two men who jumped from an SUV. Witnesses say the thugs shouted anti-Hispanic and anti-gay slurs. Police describe the bloody attack:

After "exchanging words" with the brothers, Scott got out of the SUV, hit Jose Sucuzhanay with a beer bottle and chased Romel Sucuzhanay with it, separating the brothers, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

Phoenix then got out of the SUV, took out an aluminum baseball bat and "savagely beat Jose about his shoulders, ribs and back until he fell to the pavement," Kelly said.

Then Phoenix struck the victim "several more times ... with crushing blows to his head," the police commissioner said.

Sucuzhanay's violent and senseless assault ignited outrage from New York to Ecuador and encouraged hundreds to march in Brooklyn in protest against homophobia, racism and bigotry.

The Daily News reports Scott has confessed. "Investigators said Scott admitted he and Phoenix were driving through Brooklyn in an SUV but denied they were looking to bash Hispanics or gays. However, witnesses said the attackers hurled both anti-gay and anti-Hispanic slurs at Sucuzhanay and his brother Romel, 38, who survived the attack."

Scott is charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime. Money quote from his aunt, Ellas Moore, who says her nephew has "nothing" against Hispanics or gays: "He's a good kid and this is sad."

Bronx man Arrested in Vicious Anti-Gay Murder [NYDN]
Arrest in Killing of Ecuadoran Immigrant [AP]

You May Have Missed ...
Ecuadoran Immigrant Dies After Brutal Attack [R20]
Police Search for Suspects in Brooklyn Attack [R20]
Candlelight Vigils for Victim of Brooklyn Hate Attack [R20]

Comments

[Kevin]

Complete with the obligatory and irritating, "He's a good child,"...this makes me sick...I HATE that

So many different ways this discussion could go. I'll lay back for a sec.

[FREELEO]

he's good? he's good? he's a murderer and a homophobe. if this is his family's idea of good, that would explain some things. i hope he spends the rest of his life in jail.

[nahtans]

Sad sad sad....what a waste... how do black young men get so angry ALL the time

[Mr. FAMU]

He's a good kid?

Dear Aunt Ella Moore,
You are undoubtedly part of the problem. There is nothing "good" about someone who would beat another human being to death.

Lock him up and throw away the key.

[Carlos]

this is a joke right?

what could possibly be "good" about this man? he violent homophobe and killed a man who was doing nothing

lawd have mercy on our people

[Kevin]

Well...

this was not only an anti-gay attack but possibly an anit-immigrant attack too.

Dare we (as Eric Holder suggested we should) go there?

[Jeffrey Allgood]

What a waste. Stories such as THIS are why our black community is in such serious trouble. And we don't even re alize it.

[S. Flemming]

Animal ... hopefully they'll beat him with a bat in the slammer.

[M. Mark]

OMG why do family and neighbors always say someone is 'good'? he isn't 'good' he admitted to killing a complete stranger because he was so blinded by his irrational homophobia

And Mr Famu is speaking truth. The family is part of the problem.

[Rod Mc]

Freeleo and FAMU, you took the words right off of my computer. This man learned his behavior somewhere and it probably was at home. -RM

[nahtans]

this is like saying that Chris brown is a 'good' kid that was provoked....I understand he did not kill her but the ANGER and HOW he dealt with it comes from the same place as this 'good' kid.

We as a people must do better in terms of how we deal with our problems whether it be in personal relationships or in interpersonal relationships.

Some of us seem to believe that it is ok to taunt and beat a man because he is effeminate. Some of us believe it is ok to beat a woman because she is mouthy.

Are these two groups ...gays and women the cause of our problems??

[Eddie B]

Good question Nahtans, the answer of course is no. But too many people look to prey upon those they perceive as weaker.

[FREELEO]

i am in no way making excused for chris brown, but i wasn't in the car with them. i don't know what happened. i do know that if a man hits a woman he can't justify it, regardless of the circumstances. i don't care if the woman knocks the hell out of the man. the man must walk away or he's a bully and a girlfriend/wife beater and just a horrible person. i don't care if a woman is screaming and yelling and spitting in your face. if you are man. you have to stay rational and calm and walk away from the emotional creature or you will be shamed by your people. the lesson is that women are weaker vessels and i don't care what you do, never put your hands on them because you will be wrong.

i say all of this because i wasn't in the car with chris brown and neither were any of you.

let the arrows start flying..

[Andy Niable]

There's also been troubling rise in anti-gay attacks here in Seattle recently. A candlelight vigil is being held this Saturday at 8pm.

[Mel Smith]

This example clearly shows us that gays face the most prejudice in society. Not too long ago, black were being lynched in the south by racists. Today, homophobic blacks are attacking people with baseball bats.

[Kevin]

I guess that the fact that anti-immigrant slurs were involved really doesn't bother anybody.

This attack was also racist. And that bothers me as much as the homophobia does.

But maybe that's just foolish talk from me. Or maybe we are just too cowardly too talk about it.

[FREELEO]

i don't think it's cowardice kevin. i think most of us focused on the commonality of this tragic event; an sgl person of color, murdered by a homophobe. it could have been any one of us.

i truly believe that the fact that the victims were latino was just part of the rant. if they had been black, the attack more then likely would have been spurred by, "get them f****t a** n*****s" or something to that effect. having heard this a few times in my youth, i know the mentality. i'm not sure how much the man's ethnicity played in the attack but the fact that he was perceived as gay is more then likely what got him killed.

[Kevin]

Sorry FREELEO, I have to call you on that BS!

The victims were not black, however, and witnesses report that they hear anti-immigrant slurs (w**b***s?) Black and latino relations (especially with perceived immigrants) aren't always the best (except with Puerto Ricans). I have heard anti-immigrant slurs come from as many black mouths as white mouths, if not more.

Now maybe this murderer didn't have the "power" that a white man has in this society but he had the "power" to beat this man to death with a baseball bat.

Anti-immigrant Bigotry + "power"=racism

[FREELEO]

i respect your opinion kevin.

i guess we will never know for certain. i wonder if they were the first latinos that this gang saw that night or were they the first two that they saw linked arm in arm leaning on one another?

[Kevin]

True FREELEO, but once they noticed that they were latinos did that drive them over the edge?

The first gay bashing that ever happened to me was in the South. It was 3 (maybe 4) black guys. I happened to be walking with an Arab friend of mine.

I came out of it with a few scratches here and there but I was OK. My friend, on the other hand, was so f'd had to go to the hospital( his face was very bloody), and had to stay out of school for several days. He had told me of several incidents of racial taunting that he had experienced.

So it is easy for me to believe the scenario that you outline above AND that he was beaten to death upon it being recognized that he was Latino.

Been there and done with this particular scenario outlined in the story.

[Derrick from Philly]

KEVIN,

This is blog which mainly deals with issues of interest to gay people. The anti-gay angle of this tragic incident is the "commonality" that FREELEO spoke about.

I believe that the majority of black people, especially black gay people, detest anti-Latino sentiment in our communities. I hope that the majority of Latinos feel the same about anti-black sentiments among Latinos.

Black homophobic mobs kill black gay people much more than any other type of gay people. I've been a victim, and know two other black men who were actually beaten to death. I also came close to being assaulted by a group of Latinos one night, but that didn't make me hate Latinos.

A black gay life lost is just as tragic as a white or Latino gay life lost, KEVIN, right?

[Lucas]

So tragic...

One single incident ruined four lives -- one permanently lost, two likely facing incarceration for a long time, another probably emotionally scarred for life. And for what? Skin color and homophobia?

I just don't get it. What was the point of this incident? Could anything good come out of it?

[Kevin]

Honey, spare me the the lecture on what this blog is for, that's why I am here.

As far as anti-Latino sentiment in our communities...I have to think about that. That would be true of some Latino cultures (Puerto Rican, Dominican, Cuban) but not all Latino cultures, especially immigrant cultures.

And that last question is just so insulting that I won't even dignify with a response.

[Derrick from Philly]

Yeah, KEVIN, my last sentence was unecessary. I apologize.

I just wanted to make the point that violent gay-bashing is mostly an intra-racial problem (and a crime). NO ONE suffers more at the hands of black homophobic violence than black gay people. And white gays are the main victims of white violent homophobes. There is some interacial violence, but most gay-bashing probably stays within each race/ethnic group. It's easier to get to gays of your own "kind" to commit violence against them.

Sometimes I wonder if black homophobes show more hatred towards black gays (especially those of us with strong feminine ways) than they do at gays of other races.

[Kevin]

accepted Derrick.

Well, there would certainly be greater access to those of your own ethnicity/income range/etc.

I also suspect that black gays probably would be less likely to report a bashing incident by black homophobes than homophobe bashers of another ethnicity. Does that hold true across racial lines?

In none of my cases(3)did I report the crime to the police.