ABCLocal.go.com – Jeff Pegues
Four men beat a noted East Village performer
New York- WABC – In what police say is a possible hate crime, a celebrated drag queen in Manhattan’s East Village has been beaten by four men who were allegedly yelling anti-gay slurs as they threatened to kill him and broke his jaw.
Our Jeff Pegues is at the 13th police precinct with the latest.
It’s been a very busy night here for the NYPD’s anti-hate crimes task force. Already, I’m told, they’ve made three arrests in the attack on well-known performer Kevin Aviance. Police say he was targeted by a small group of teenagers.
Kevin Aviance is in Beth Israel Hospital, the victim of a brutal beating and a possible bias crime.
Kevin Aviance: “It’s a hate crime.”
In a phone interview, he talked about the attack that has him confined to a hospital bed.
Aviance: “I fell to the ground, covering my head.”
The attack occurred at about 1:30 a.m. Saturday. He’d just left a popular gay bar in the East Village, heading to hail a taxi. Along the way, police say he got into a verbal dispute with a man who, along with three others, pursued and assaulted him at the corner of 14th Street and First Avenue.