Police arrested two men in a gay-bashing attack that occurred near the 33rd Street PATH Station in Manhattan on Friday. Three others fled after police broke up the attack.
The incident took place around 5 a.m. on Friday night. The two men tried to get into a billiards hall on West 32nd Street. After they were not allowed in, they were followed by a group of five men that were yelling anti-gay slurs.
The two victims fled to the nearby PATH station where they were beaten. The attack was broken up by Port Authority Police Sgt. Michael Thomas, and Officers Matt Vogelman and Dwight Clark.
Police identified Asllan Berisha and Brian Ramirez, both 21 from New York City, as the two suspects that were arrested after the attack. The two men are facing felony hate crime charges and assault.
Officials did not identify the two victims of the attack. They were treated at Bellevue Hospital, and one of the victims needed eye surgery. Although they were not identified, the victims did allow police to release their photos to news sources in order to get help finding the remaining three attackers.
This attack comes just days after another incident of gay-bashing that occurred in the same area of Manhattan. On May 5, following a Knicks playoff game, a group of men attacked a gay couple near Madison Square Garden.
Nick Porto and Kevin Atkins were the victims of the attack. “There is no word to describe the pain. The attack is on all of us,” Porto said in a report from CBS News.
Police are still searching for the four men responsible for the May 5 attack. They released a photo of one of the suspects, who is being described as a Hispanic man, six feet tall, in his 20s with brown hair and a tattoo on his left forearm.
The NYPD and the Port Authority Police Department are currently working together to determine if there is any connection between the two attacks.
