Robert Bellamy
A man who was arrested on Long Island and charged with beating up two men he thought were gay told police, “God made me hate gay people," court records show.
Robert Bellamy, 26, and two accomplices shouted anti-gay slurs at two men last weekend before beating the men, police say. The victims were reportedly walking home from a Halloween party. One of the victims was dressed in women’s clothing.
Bellamy was charged Thursday in a Nassau County court with robbery as a hate crime and two counts of assault as a hate crime.
His two alleged accomplices are still being sought by police.
Prior to the assault, the three assailant had encountered at least one of the two victims at a convenience store in the Lakeview neighborhood, where they “focused in” on the man, Nassau Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey said at a Thursday press conference. They then “began to harass … verbally and physically by pushing him” and calling him the anti-gay slur.
“They perceived him to be homosexual,” Mulvey said.
County Executive Thomas Suozzi, who stood with Mulvey at the press conference, noted that a victim’s actual sexual orientation is “irrelevant” to prosecute under hate crimes law, Newsday reports.
Man charged in LI hate crime says ‘God made me hate gay people’ [contd.]
Ballamy and his accomplices later saw the man and a friend walking down a street at about 1:50 am, police say. The attackers jumped from a car and surrounded the victims, court records say.
Police said that Bellamy is accused of punching one of the victims in the face and then - along with the two other suspects - punching the second victim in the head and face, knocking him to the ground, and calling him a “faggot” during the assault, WPIX reports.
While one of the victims was on the ground, all three suspects allegedly kicked him in the stomach and stole $7 from his pockets before fleeing the scene, according to the police report.
Both victims were rushed to Mercy Hospital where they were treated and released.
At Thursday’s press conference, Suozzi called combating hate crime a “priority of our administration.”
“If you commit a hate crime in Nassau County, we're going to do everything we can to arrest you, put you in jail and make your life miserable,” Suozzi said.
Source: Man Arrested in Apparent LI Hate Crime – WPIX
hattip: Rod 2.0
Last modified: 5 Nov 09 09:09
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