By Charles Maldonado
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN -- A pre-trial hearing, originally scheduled for Tuesday, of Omar Willock, a 17-year-old Crown Heights resident accused of killing 20-year-old Roberto Duncanson in May because Duncanson was gay, has been adjourned until Jan. 15.
Willock was indicted for second-degree murder as a hate crime by Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes in June, after he was arrested for stabbing Duncanson to death.
According to the Kings County District Attorney’s Office, Willock and Duncanson were passing each other on St. Marks Avenue in Crown Heights when Willock became angry and accused Duncanson of flirting with him. Duncanson walked away and went to a friend’s house in the neighborhood.
When Duncanson returned later, just after 12:30 a.m. on May 12, Willock, who was still there, allegedly began hurling anti-gay slurs at him. Duncanson tried to walk away again, but Willock caught up with him and began fighting with him, prosecutors say.
Then, according to the charges, Willock pulled a knife and stabbed Duncanson four times in the back.
Duncanson was taken to Kings County Hospital, where he was pronounced dead as a result of two of his stab wounds.
Willock could face life in prison if convicted. Assistant District Attorney Howard Jackson, who is prosecuting the case, could not be reached for comment by press time.
Willock’s attorney, Benjamin Heinrich, also declined to comment on the case.
On the Heels of Well-Known
Anti-Gay Hate Crime Here
This case follows another recent highly publicized anti-gay hate crime trial in Brooklyn. On Nov. 20, John Fox, Jr., Anthony Fortunato and Ilya Shurov were sentenced for their roles in the death of gay Williamsburg man Michael Sandy. The three men, along with Gary Timmons, who accepted a plea bargain with prosecutors in exchange for his testimony in the trial, were convicted of luring Sandy to his death.
Fortunato met Sandy at a gay Internet chat room. The two discussed having sex and agreed on a meeting place. When Sandy, a 29-year-old East Williamsburg man, arrived, Shurov pulled him out of his car and began beating him. Sandy ran away into traffic on the Belt Parkway, where he was struck by a car and killed.
The three men were convicted of hate crimes against Sandy in October. Fortunato will serve 7 to 21 years; Fox will serve 13 to 21 years; and Shurov will serve 17 and a half years.
New FBI statistics show that this sort of crime may be on the rise in the greater New York area and around the country.
18 Percent Increase
In 2006, the FBI recorded 1,195 hate crime incidents based on sexual orientation across the country compared with 1,017 in 2005, an 18 percent increase.
The New York City branch reported 59 hate crimes based on sexual orientation in 2006, more than were recorded for either race (52 incidents) or ethnicity (17) incidents. There were 146 religion-based crimes.
In 2004, the last year before 2006 for which the FBI has New York City hate crime statistics, there were only eight incidents based on sexual orientation.
But according to the Manhattan-based activist group, the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, those numbers may be well below the reality.
According to a Nov. 19 press release, the AVP recorded 486 incidents in the New York Metropolitan area during 2006.
The AVP acknowledged that “some improvement has been made” in law enforcement data collection of hate crimes, but that “we are concerned, particularly when looking at the dramatic increase in the number of anti-lesbian, gay and bisexual incidents reported.”
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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