“A few of our employees thought it was gunshots and ducked,” he stated in regards to the second and third incidents, including that the bar’s safety guard tried to chase down the perpetrator on each events, however didn’t seize the particular person or determine them.
Erik Bottcher, a New York Metropolis council member who represents Hell’s Kitchen and is homosexual, known as the incidents “hate crimes” in a tweet on Sunday and urged anybody with info that might determine the perpetrator to succeed in out to the NYPD Hate Crime Process Pressure. DeParolesa stated Saturday’s incident had been referred to the duty power.
“The epidemic of anti-LGBTQ+ violence is nationwide,” Mark Levine, the Manhattan borough president, additionally tweeted Sunday. “A widely known homosexual bar on Manhattan’s west aspect has been attacked repeatedly in current weeks. We cannot stand for this.”
The assaults come because the NYPD additionally investigates a collection of robberies and assaults which may be linked to the deaths of two homosexual males earlier this 12 months after they left Hell’s Kitchen homosexual bars, the NYPD confirmed this month.
On the opposite aspect of the nation, inside hours of the incident at VERS on Saturday, a gunman in Colorado Springs opened fireplace at a homosexual nightclub, leaving 5 lifeless and 19 wounded. Prosecutors in Colorado on Monday charged the suspect with 5 counts of first-degree homicide and 5 bias crimes. Though the motive of the shooter stays unknown, the mayor of Colorado Springs stated on the “TODAY” present he felt the incident had “all the trimmings of a hate crime.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul stated Monday she has directed New York State Police to beef up safety of at-risk communities, together with LGBTQ communities, throughout the state.
Whereas DeParolesa confused that his bar is a protected place and that nobody was damage throughout any of the incidents involving his institution, he stated he additionally feels the nation is in a second of “emboldened anti-gay, anti-trans resurgence.”
“The pendulum swings,” he stated. “That is the manifestation of that.”
