7 arrested in brutal anti-gay attacks on 3 victims

Police arrested seven youths late Thursday - one as young as 16 - on charges they took part in brutal anti-gay attacks that involved sodomizing one victim with a wooden plunger handle and another with a baseball bat.

Three victims were held against their will and assaulted in an empty Bronx apartment at 1910 Osborne Place in the Morris Heights section, investigators said. Another victim was beaten and robbed elsewhere, police said. All the victims were recovering.

At a news conference Friday, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said nine members of the "Latin King Goonies" gang carried out the attacks after learning that one of the 17 year-old victims, an aspiring gang member, had sex with a 30-year-old man.

As of late Friday, seven suspects ranging in age from 23 to 16 were in custody on a variety of sodomy, assault and unlawful imprisonment charges, all classified as hate crimes. Two other suspects were being sought.

The 17-year-old victim was taken to the Osborne Place apartment early Sunday morning, stripped naked, hit on the head with a beer can, cut with a box cutter and finally sodomized with the plunger handle, Kelly said.

"His tormentors denounced the teen and questioned him about his contact with a 30-year-old male who the same suspects would later assault," Kelly said.

Police said another 17-year-old was attacked by the gang, held against his will and beaten and questioned about the 30-year-old man believed to have been involved in the gay sex encounter. Eventually, Kelly said, the older man was lured to the apartment and told to bring beer for a party but was instead assaulted by the gang.

The 30-year-old was forced to drink the beer, becoming intoxicated, and was then sodomized with a baseball bat, according to Kelly. That victim was then beaten and dumped outside his home.

"These suspects employed terrible wolf-pack odds of nine-against-one, odds which revealed them as predators whose crimes were as cowardly as they were despicable," said Kelly.

According to police, the attacks spread as five gang members later Sunday went to the apartment of the brother of the 30-year-old, beating him and robbing him.

While the gang members tried to clean up the Osborne Place apartment with bleach to remove blood from the attack, the strong smell only heightened the suspicions of detectives at the scene, said Kelly, adding cops found useful evidence at the site despite the cleanup effort.