CRIME
Gay Couple Fend Off Hate Attackers in the Bronx
Duo restrain knife-wielding assailants until cops arrive in Mott Hoven
BY MATT TRACY
Two men approached a
gay couple in the Mott
Haven section of the
Bronx on July 7 and
hurled anti-gay slurs, menaced
them with knives, cutting one of
them, and attempted to rob them
in the middle of the day, according
to the victims and police.
“I was going to this clinic right
here with my partner and then
boom, all of this happened,” said
27-year-old Kelson Akomolafe,
who was attacked at around noon
alongside his partner, 30-year-old
Edward Hoard, at the corner of
Third Avenue and Brook Avenue.
The pair were on their way to a
doctor’s appointment when the two
men pounced, according to Akomolafe,
who recalled the incident
in a Facebook Live video moments
after the attack.
“We just came out of the street
and this guy starts saying something
like, Ooh, we know you’re
gay,” explained Akomolafe, who
said the attackers also called the
couple “faggots” and “batty men,”
Kelson Akomolafe (pictured) and his partner, Edward Hoard, were hit with anti-LGBTQ slurs and fended
off a knife attack and an attempted robbery on July 7.
an anti-gay slur used in Jamaica.
Akomolafe continued, “I said,
‘Do you know this guy?’ He said
‘No,’ and I’m like, ‘Okay, let’s keep
walking.’ All of a sudden… the guy
pulled up a knife trying to rob me
of my bag… so I put him on the
ground…”
The Facebook Live video showed
blood splattered on the ground
FACEBOOK/ KELSON SHAWN
stemming from the incident. Akomolafe,
who is from Nigeria, said
the attackers also voiced xenophobic
sentiments.
In a subsequent Facebook LIve
video, Akomolafe said one attacker
grabbed his bag and the other
pulled out a knife. He subdued the
man with the knife, while his partner
subdued the other man. In the
process, Akomolafe said the knife
cut his fi nger and damaged his
phone.
Ricky Bellevue, 35, and Trevel
Parris, 28, were charged with
menacing, criminal possession of
a weapon, and robbery, assault,
and harassment — the last three
charged as hate crimes, according
to pollice. Bellevue was also
hit with a harassment stalking
charge.
According to the New York Daily
News, the cops initially put Akomolafe
in handcuffs, along with
the attackers, apparently thinking
he was one of the assailants.
He was subsequently released and
spent the next several hours answering
cops’ questions.
Bellevue has a history of mental
health issues, police sources
told the Daily News. He recently
landed in the news when he was
the victim of an illegal chokehold
by a police offi cer near Rockaway
Beach. The offi cer in that case,
David Afanador, was the fi rst cop
charged under the new chokehold
law dubbed the Eric Garner Anti-
Chokehold Act.
Three Black Trans Women Die in First Week of July
Two deaths in Louisiana, one in Florida after deadly fi nish to June nationwide
BY MATT TRACY
Three more Black transgender
women across
two different states were
found dead in the fi rst
week of the month after at least
two other trans individuals were
murdered in other parts of the
country to close out the month of
June, marking the latest in a serious
rash of deadly violence targeting
Black transgender woman in
the United States.
Two women — Draya McCarty
and Shakie Peters — were found
dead in Louisiana, while 27-yearold
Bree Black was killed in Pompano
Beach, Florida, in a series
of cases that have emerged this
month. Those cases follow the
shooting death of Merci Mack in
Dallas on June 30 and the murder
of Brayla Stone near Little Rock,
Arkansas, on June 25. It was also
revealed last month that Kristian
Rouse, an 18-year-old Black
transgender man, was beaten at
his own apartment in May and
was forced to spend approximately
a month on a ventilator. He has a
long recovery ahead of him.
A spokesperson representing
the St. Helena Parish Sheriff’s Offi
ce told Gay City News that Peters,
32, w FACEBOOK/ BREE BLACK as found dead with gunshot
Bree Black was just 27 years old when she was found dead with gunshot wounds in Pompano Beach,
Florida, on July 3.
➤ JULY DEATHS, continued on p.21
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/GayCityNews.com
