4 Teenagers Are Arrested in Attack at Gay Shelter

Posted on July 14, 2008
Filed Under Gay News Blog

Four teenagers have been arrested on charges that they harassed and struck a priest who runs a Queens shelter for transgender and gay youth. Some of the shelter’s residents were also attacked, officials said on Tuesday.

The victims had minor injuries, the police said.

The priest, the Rev. Louis Braxton Jr., said he was returning to the shelter, Carmen’s Place, on Steinway Street in Astoria, about 10:30 on Monday night when he saw a group of youths hit a resident on the head with a bag of garbage.

Father Braxton, an Episcopal priest who is the shelter’s director, said he shouted at the attackers and they fled. But four youths returned soon after holding a paint bucket, a miter box, steel brackets and a belt. By then other shelter residents had gathered outside, Father Braxton said.

Two residents of Carmen’s Place argued with the four and were punched in the face and body, Kevin Ryan, a spokesman for the Queens district attorney’s office, said.

4 Teenagers Are Arrested in Attack at Gay Shelter
New York Times, United States