The Nation - News from Jan. 7, 1987

Police have located independent witnesses to last month’s racial attack in the Howard Beach area of Queens, N.Y., strengthening the case that prosecutors are preparing to present to a grand jury, officials said. Yet the case remains weakened by the refusal of a survivor of the Dec. 20 attack to testify, said Tom McCarthy, spokesman for Queens Dist. Atty. John J. Santucci. He said the witnesses are among the 24 people who called the police emergency number to report the attack in which a white group allegedly assaulted three black men, one of whom was hit by a car and killed as he fled.