Four young white men were charged Friday with being part of a gang accused of killing one black teenager and chasing three others from a white neighborhood with baseball bats.
The gang of as many as 30 white youths, intent on preventing an interracial couple from meeting, attacked the black teenagers Wednesday night as they were going to meet someone selling a used car, authorities said.The killing of Yusef Hawkins, 16, was reminiscent of the 1986 Howard Beach case, in which a group of white teenagers in the Howard Beach section of Queens chased three blacks, one of whom was hit by a car and killed.
In Brooklyn's mostly Italian-Jewish Bensonhurst section Wednesday night, the white gang gathered to waylay blacks or Hispanics they believed were headed for a young white woman's birthday party in the neighborhood, authorities said.
Police Commissioner Benjamin Ward said the 18-year-old woman had recently jilted her white boyfriend and had been dating black and Hispanic men.
The spurned boyfriend had threatened the woman and made comments to her about "your nigger boyfriend" and "bringing niggers into the neighborhood," said Deputy Commissioner Alice McGillion.
The slain youth's father stood Thursday night on his own Brooklyn street, which is mostly black, and laid the blame squarely on racism.
"My son will never turn this corner again and it's only because of this: the pigment of his skin," Fred Stewart said bitterly.
Four young Brooklyn men whom police believe were part of the gang were taken into custody. Keith Mondello, 18; Steven Curreri, 18; Pasquale Raucci, 19, and Charles Stressler, 21 were charged Friday with assault, riot, aggravated harassment, violation of civil rights, menacing and possessing a weapon, said Sgt. Norris Hollomon. The weapon was a bat.