The latest on the Michael Sandy case: Three young men are charged with vicious hate crimes as the gay Brooklyn man remains in a coma and clings to life on a respirator.
John Fox, 19; Ilya Shurov, 20, and Gary Timmins, 16—all of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn—were charged with assault and robbery as hate crimes in Sunday's brutal bashing. "They are predators. They went to gay chat rooms. They posed as gay men. They targeted gay men and schemed to rob them. We don't think this victim was their first," a police source says, adding that another 20 year old man is cooperating with investigators.
Michael Sandy, a native of Bellport, L.I., is an interior designer at the Ikea store in Hicksville. He lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Investigators say Fox and Shurov posed as gay men and "trolled the internet chat room Adam4Adam looking for easy marks to rob. They thought they found a likely target" on Sunday, when Sandy agreed to meet them at Plumb Beach, a known gay cruising spot in Sheepshead Bay
McCartha Lewis, Sandy’s aunt and the popular Trini singer known as Calypso Rose, says the family is rallying to support her nephew and struggling with whether to remove him from the respirator. She says the family wanted to wait at least until today, Michael’s 29th birthday, before making that decision “The doctors want us to pull the plug, but I told them no.”
Hate Crime Charges in Belt Attack (NY Daily News)
3 Charged in Hate Crimes (NYT)
Calypso Rose Bio and Discography (Wikipedia/Ice Records)
More NYC Gay Bashing:
Four Arrested in Internet Set-Up (Rod 2.0) Brooklyn Gay Bashing Update (Rod 2.0) Gay Man Beaten in Vicious Attack? (Rod 2.0) Man Found in Prospect Park (Rod 2.0) Hate Trial Begins (Rod 2.0) NYPD Denies Lead (Rod 2.0) "So Freaked Out" (Rod 2.0) Hate Trial Begins (Rod 2.0) Rashawn Brazell: A Memorial (Rod 2.0) Six Months (Rod 2.0) Mother's Day Blues (Rod 2.0)
Thanks for staying on top of this.
Posted by: Zavi | 12 October 2006 at 11:24
If the family pulls the plug, does that mean charges are upgraded are not?
Posted by: Tony R | 12 October 2006 at 11:31
If the family elects to remove Michael from the respirator, charges will probably cannot be upgraded manslaughter because he was alive at the time he was found. I think--and please soemoen corect me if I'm wrong--New York state has a "wrongful indifference to human life" law, but, you would have to prove that they didn't care if he lived or died. The problem is that the young man wa shit by a car, which probably hurt him the most.
Hate crimes with assault is a good charge that they can get a conviction on.
Posted by: Quinton | 12 October 2006 at 11:37
This is just so awful, such a shame. And today is his birthday.
Posted by: patrick s | 12 October 2006 at 11:38
Who has been reporting on this story less, the gay press or the black press?
Posted by: Dluv | 12 October 2006 at 11:44
Rod, this is Pieter from Johannesburg. Once again, thanks for continuing to keep issues like this out in the open. It's such a sad state of affairs that these assaults continue even in America of all places.
Posted by: Pieter | 12 October 2006 at 11:48
"Black press"? What black press? Jet and EURweb? LOL, they don't care.
But fortunately the gay media have been all over this one. Even the white blogs. I doubt they would have noticed if Rod hadn't posted that first article, because this was not a front page story.
Posted by: Greg | 12 October 2006 at 12:32
You can assume that the black press will ignore a gay bashing. However, the assailiants being white, some of the newsppaers may pick up on this one.
But it's ironic that the mainstream, white gay media will report thsi and even lilly-white blogs like Towleroad, but black gay weblogs have ignored it. Or came to it very late.
Posted by: Henry TW | 12 October 2006 at 12:46
I hate to sound like white folks, but where is Rev. Al Sharpton? Where are the other leaders in N.Y. who would be all over this if the sexuality component weren't there?
Posted by: Dluv | 12 October 2006 at 12:49
Henry, don't even get me started with "black gay blogs."
A month or two ago Keith wrote a very good article on black gay blogs and the power of black bloggers, epecially after Lifebeat. He singled out the seveal other black gay blogs that are fairly prominent on the national scene (Jasmyne, Pam Spaulding, Terrence and Rod) and linked to a long list of blogs. I was kind of hoping that some bloggers would be motivated by that but the two bloggers actually complained about not being singled out or included. Most aren't doing anything besides gossip or posting shirtless phoros from Noah. Or, writing whatever Keith or Rod have already written about. It;'s just like black folks, w edon't want to step up.
Posted by: Brandon | 12 October 2006 at 13:00
Brandon, I do remember Keith's post and it was well written and a call to action.
Unfortuantely, Terrence Heath and Pam Spaulding are hard working, but for the most part are black in color only. Both have white spouses and live in exclusively white worlds. They only write about black issues to complain about this or that politician or reverend. Especially tTerrence, for someone who is not a Christian and doesn't live in a black community or with a black person, he is obsessed with the black church and gay men. IMHO.
Posted by: Joe Jons | 12 October 2006 at 13:08
i for one am grateful for the bloggers like rod and keith for posting about this crime and other issues that face black gay men and women. the other bloggers mentioned i've never heard of, so no comment there. that said, this vicious beating needs to be in the black mainstream press as well, but, its now 4 days later and i don't seem to have been across anything, so, again, black and gay still the bottom of the rung no matter how one looks at it.
Posted by: jared | 12 October 2006 at 16:14
Jared, you make a very good point.
Posted by: Brandon | 12 October 2006 at 16:25
I, for one, am very happy the wider gay community reported this story, even if they were a few days late.
Brandon and Joe, why even waste time reading Republic of T? It's all reaction and pre-occupation with religion, black pastors and gay marriage. It's like Queer as Folk and the Sharon Gless PFLAG mom is writing. It's okay reading if you have that wannabe-colorblind mentality, but then he gets pre-occupied with racism. Duh. Why marry a white guy and live in the white suburbs?
Rod and Keith have two very diff perspectives, which is appealing. Boykin is much more activist and incendiary and Rod is a journalist type. Between the two of them, they keep us informed.
FYI, Republic of T hasn't mentioned this story. But I bet if it were a white boy gay bashed by blacks he wuld mention it, or, even if the brother had been beat by other black men. This scenario....a black beat by whites...just does not compute for him.
Posted by: Earl FF | 12 October 2006 at 16:42
I'm from Trinidad too, which is surprisingly liberal and welcoming for a Caribbean island. This doesn't seem to have made it to our national media yet. I sincerely hope it does, this level of homophobia is disturbing beyond belief.
Posted by: afrobella | 12 October 2006 at 22:00
Could this incident be yet another call to consciousness of "clear and present" danger online chat/hook-up services pose? Have you ever noticed that most internet profiles are vastly more interesting than the actual individuals who create them? Is a casual hook-up with some Internet whore worth risking your life? Does anybody remember Jeffrey Dahmer? Brothers, waaaaaaakee uuuuuuuuppp!!!!
Posted by: IbouDiop | 13 October 2006 at 00:15
The Trinidad Express has written two frank stories on Sandy's attack, without most of the usual innuendo that accompanies gay-related stories. Boykin links to one of them and they'll pop up in the top hits on Google News. Calypso Rose is from Trinidad's sister island Tobago.
Posted by: Colin | 13 October 2006 at 08:27
Colin, the boy is being taken off the respirator and you come on YESTERDAY'S post to correct his facts. Tsk, tsk.
Sweetness, sorry to upet your bubble, but Rod had this story first, Keith and the others came a day or two later. If Sandy's aunt is from "Trinidad" and not neighboring Tobago--even though they are part of the same nation--that angle was also reported here first.
Much bigger events are happening besides minor geographical errors.
Posted by: brandon | 13 October 2006 at 12:02
Those scum bastards should be put to death for what they did to Sandy and whoever else they've have hurt.....and their should be tougher laws against these gay bashing. And especially for those pieces of their mothers shit that did this to Sandy.....But, if his family decides to pull the plug, its thier choice and let him rest in peace. But should fight for tougher laws for what happen to thier son and anyone else.
Posted by: Gay Is Beautiful | 25 October 2006 at 15:50
I havejust gotten on this website, and something abt some people on here just didnt seem right. Inever knew what it was nitli read ur blog/site..thanks.ur kid didnt die in vain. i believe u saved MY life. if theres anythin i can do.,,hit me up please...cityking08@aol.com, these dudes were/are really creepy.I nay have run into ur suspect, but thanks to u-all i gotta better perspective abt this site...again thanx soooomuch. I live because of y'all....KING2008
Posted by: Jamall Knight | 10 May 2008 at 23:59
hi
Posted by: james | 11 May 2008 at 14:11
I AM SO SORRY TO HEAR ABOUT THIS. THIS IS SUCH A TRAGIC, AND HORRIFIC THING TO HAPPEN TO MR. SANDY OR ANY OTHER PERSON... HOPE THE THUGS GET LIFE AND MORE...MY THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS ARE WITH THIS FAMILY...WE ALL MUST PUT A END TO HATE!!!!!KENNETH
Posted by: KENNETH | 24 May 2008 at 08:34