Arrest in NYC homophobic, racist slaying
02.26.2009 8:49am EST
(New York City) New York City Police say Wednesday they have arrested one of the attackers who yelled slurs as they beat an Ecuadorean immigrant to death on a city street, and investigators are looking for a second suspect.
Hakim Scott, 25, was arrested in the Dec. 7 attack on real estate broker Jose Sucuzhanay, which ignited outrage from New York to Ecuador. Police and prosecutors said he was beaten with a bat and kicked by men shouting anti-Hispanic and anti-gay slurs as he walked arm in arm with his brother to keep warm.Scott was expected to be charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime on Thursday, authorities said. Messages left at two possible telephone numbers for his Bronx home weren’t immediately returned Wednesday night. Authorities didn’t know if he had an attorney.
Police were looking for a second suspect they identified as Keith Phoenix, 28, also of the Bronx. No working telephone number could be found for him.
“Anybody who commits a hate crime, we will not rest until we find them,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a news conference.
Sucuzhanay, 31, and his brother Romel were accosted on a Brooklyn street after attending a church party and stopping at a bar. Phoenix and Scott were sitting in a sport utility vehicle at a red light when they came upon the brothers, police said Wednesday.
After “exchanging words” with the brothers, Scott got out of the SUV, hit Jose Sucuzhanay with a beer bottle and chased Romel Sucuzhanay with it, separating the brothers, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
Phoenix then got out of the SUV, took out an aluminum baseball bat and “savagely beat Jose about his shoulders, ribs and back until he fell to the pavement,” Kelly said.
Then Phoenix struck the victim “several more times … with crushing blows to his head,” the police commissioner said.
Romel Sucuzhanay was able to run and call police.
The attack left Jose Sucuzhanay in a coma. He died five days later as his mother was en route from Ecuador to see him. He was buried in Ecuador.
Investigators used information from witnesses about the SUV’s license plate to trace the vehicle to Phoenix’s girlfriend, who wasn’t involved in the attack, Kelly said.
They linked Phoenix to the SUV using information from an Oct. 20 accident report; he was driving it at the time, police said.
Investigators have surveillance video from the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge showing Phoenix and Scott going through a toll 19 minutes after the attack, Kelly said.
Police took Scott into custody for questioning Tuesday near his home, he said.
Phoenix is on parole for an armed robbery conviction, Kelly said. There is a $22,000 reward for his arrest and conviction.
After the attack, hundreds of people gathered for a demonstration in Brooklyn condemning it, and officials in Ecuador monitored the investigation and discussed urging the U.S. Congress to back a campaign of anti-bias education.
The attack on Sucuzhanay came about a month after another Ecuadorean immigrant, Marcelo Lucero, was stabbed to death in Patchogue, on Long Island. Prosecutors said seven teenagers charged in that assault had set out to find a Hispanic person to attack.




Yeah, right Jason. I’m sure these two African-American thugs with criminal records were inspired to kill by religion and Republicans.
Just another murder promulgated by right wing religion and its poisoning of society. It is time to hold the real sources accountable. Let them scream. Put them in Jail. Maybe we can make their confinement more enjoyable by giving them their real holy text- mein Kampf. And make sure the rumor that floats around the prison is that the murderer is secretly gay himself. If that sounds like an unconstitutional act, I got the idea from that idiot monstrosity named Bush.
This whole storey is so sad. This needs to be taught in schools. Homophobia/Racism is just so wrong. Just because you think someone is gay they may not be. No one should be attacked.
The other really sad storey is of the lady that was not allowed to be with her dying partner in the Florida Hospital. Both of these show why we need a National GBLT Rights bill, much like the Civil Rights Bill of the 1960s. As well as education K-12 about diversity..
Tom in Long Beach
Enough of killing people just because of their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc.! This has got to stop. Noone deserves to go through the sorts of things these Latino men went through as they died.
Time to also protect our straight brothers who are mistaken for gay men. They too, just like us gay men, are victims of homophobia.
This is absolutly ridiculous! Something needs to be done.
Thank God, and I mean that. Thanks to the good GOD who is protective and wants us to follow the golden rule.