Sources within the NYPD today revealed a tenth man has been taken into custody in connection with the horrific torture and beating of three gay men in The Bronx last week. Jose Dominguez, 22, has been charged with a raft of felonies, all as hate crimes, including asssault, aggravated assault, and unlawful imprisonment. Dominguez allegedly took part with at least nine other members of the Latin King Goonies, a local street gang, in the forcible sodomy and torture of two 17-year-old and one 30-year-old-man. All three victims were gay. The atrocity, which garnered national headlines, has highlighted a recent spike in anti-gay assaults in the New York City area, including an attack on a gay patron inside the faned Stonewall Inn, birthplace of the LGBT righs movement. A source close to the investigation tells me that Dominguez' arrest is the latest, but likely not the last, as the ongoing investigation continues.
The brutal ordeal began for the three victims on the evening of October 3, when gang leaders heard rumors that one of the victims was gay. Over the course of a three hour period, the other two victims were found, and all three were stripped, beaten, forced to drink several cans of an alcohol-energy drink known as Four Loko, "confess" to being gay, and sodomized with a plunger handle and miniature baseball bat. The suspects, ranging in age from 16 to 23, and all were rounded up by the NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force over the past week.
If convicted, all the suspects, including three teens charged as adults, could face more than 25 years behind bars each. The tenth suspect, Dominguez, was arrested earlier today, and will be arraigned at Bronx Supreme Court.
