New York Teen Is Charged With Hate Crime in Beating
A white teenager was charged with a hate crime Thursday for allegedly beating a black man with a baseball bat in the Howard Beach section of Queens, the site of an infamous racial confrontation two decades ago.
Police said Nicholas Minucci, 19, confessed to the Wednesday attack, which left the victim in critical condition with multiple skull fractures and a bruised kidney.
Minucci was charged with assault as a hate crime -- punishable by a minimum of eight years in prison -- as well as robbery and criminal weapon possession.
Police arrested a suspected accomplice, 21-year-old Anthony Ench. A third person surrendered to police and was being described as a witness.
Minucci’s lawyer, Lori Zeno, said the victim, Glenn Moore, 22, had tried to rob Minucci and had threatened him with a screwdriver. Police said they did not believe Minucci’s account.
The altercation happened blocks from where three black men were beaten in 1986 after their car broke down. One of them, 23-year-old Michael Griffith, was killed. The attack ignited racial tensions and was compared to a lynching by Edward Koch, mayor at the time.
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