Four men arrested
in attack of New York gay man

Four men who allegedly lured a gay man to a remote pickup spot in New York City to rob him only to see him hit by a car after he tried to escape were arrested Tuesday night. The men, all of whom are 20 years old or younger, apparently had approached the victim online and promised to have sex with him but upon meeting him tried to rob him instead--an incident that is being investigated by police as a hate crime, Newsday reports. According to police, the victim, 28-year-old Michael Sandy of Brooklyn, agreed to meet his alleged attackers Sunday night after exchanging e-mails about having sex. But when Sandy, a designer for IKEA, showed up at the meeting spot, a parking lot for a public park in an outer part of the borough popular for cruising, he was set upon by the men in an attempted robbery. In response, Sandy inadvertently fled into traffic on nearby Belt Parkway, where he was hit by a car and seriously injured. He remains in critical condition on a respirator at a local hospital. The alleged attackers, who say they are heterosexual, have made incriminating statements to police, even suggesting they had tried to lure and attack gay men online in the past, Newsday reports. Several witnesses have already been interviewed by investigators from both the New York Police Department's Hate Crimes Task Force and the local detective squad. Democratic state senator Carl Kruger of Brooklyn announced there would be a $1,000 reward in the case and vowed to take measures to prevent such an attack from happening again. "It was originally intended to be a family gathering place, a recreational facility for the community," Kruger said of the park where the incident took place, according to Newsday. "Through the years it evolved into nothing more than a snake pit of illegal activity." (The Advocate)