From: News and Views | Crime File |
Thursday, September 06, 2001

Gay Man Dies of Beat Injuries
Queens baseball bat attack
Aug. 15 eyed as hate crime

http://www.nydailynews.com/2001-09-06/News_and_Views/Crime_File/a-124363.asp

By DONALD BERTRAND and ALICE McQUILLAN
Daily News Staff Writers

 A gay man whose skull was smashed in a savage beating as he walked home from a Queens bar has died after languishing in a coma for three weeks, police said yesterday.

Detectives are investigating the killing of Edgar Garzon in Jackson Heights as a possible hate crime, while gay activists are raising a growing pot of reward money.

Garzon, 35, a theater set designer, was attacked shortly before 4 a.m. Aug. 15 after leaving Friend's Tavern, a gay bar on Roosevelt Ave., cops said.

He walked with a friend for several blocks toward his home on 34th Ave. After they separated, Garzon stopped to relieve himself when a red car carrying two strangers pulled up alongside him near 35th Ave. and 77th St.

One man grabbed a baseball bat or lead pipe and bashed Garzon in the head, cops said. His friend heard the commotion and ran back to find him sprawled in a pool of blood.

Garzon was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center, where he died Tuesday without regaining consciousness. An autopsy found he had several skull fractures and a brain hemorrhage.

Clues are scarce. A bank surveillance camera caught the moving red car but not a clear picture of the men. Witnesses said the car, possibly an Acura or Honda, sounded like it didn't have a muffler.

Although the suspects screamed at Garzon, cops aren't sure what they said.

Cops initially believed the suspects stole Garzon's wallet, because one of his pants pockets was turned inside out. However, his wallet was found in his apartment.

Born in Colombia, Garzon was a dancer who made his living designing sets for local Latino theater groups, said a friend, Andres Duque, 33.

"He lived alone but had a huge circle of friends," said Duque, coordinator of Mano a Mano, a coalition of gay groups. "They were his family away from his family."

Gay activists have raised nearly $3,000 in reward money for tips leading to an arrest. They will show their support tonight in a silent candlelight march from the bar to the slay scene, beginning at 9 p.m.

Garzon's slaying recalled for many the killing of Julio Rivera, a gay man fatally beaten and stabbed in a Jackson Heights, Queens, schoolyard in 1990.

"It's very upsetting and frightening to see there is still such hatred and homophobia in the city," said City Councilwoman Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan).

Rivera's slaying galvanized the area's gay community, whose numbers have steadily grown in the last decade. There about a half-dozen gay bars on Roosevelt Ave., and gay community centers have recently opened in Woodside and Corona.

"There's a lot of fear and anger in the community," said Daniel Dromm of the Queens Lesbian Gay Pride Committee. "It's a fact of life for us that we always have to walk down the street looking over our shoulder."

Police ask that anyone with information call (800) 577-TIPS.