Newark Triple Murders -- Another Laramie in 2007?

[JackBeck]

Newark Triple Murders -- Another Laramie in 2007?
by: Juan Melli
Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 03:31:48 PM EDT

"Terrance Aeriel, Dashon Harvey and Iofemi Hightower are gone, a loss which rips at the soul of the city of Newark and staggers us all with the brutality of it. Natasha Aeriel was tortured. What hell she's lived through we can only imagine. What's left for all of us now is to come to terms about how and why all this came to be. To face it. And then to rise to the challenge to protect all vulnerable youth, and make sure this doesn't happen ever again.

Some leaders in Newark's LGBT community are calling on mayor Cory Booker, the City Council and police to answer the question: "Why is the recent execution style slaying of three young people in Newark not being investigated as a hate crime?"

We are told that friends of the victims have come forward to ask why the identities of the murdered teenagers, and the lone survivor, have been suppressed, claiming that "at least one or more of the victims were gay". Media reports indicate that two of the victims were sexually molested before being killed. Though authorities suggest robbery was the motive, some in the community say they were targeted because they were gay."

(Edit: Link. Duh.)http://www.bluejersey.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=5729

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Unelievable. How many more times does this have to happen before we get added to the already exisiting federal Hate Crimes laws? Sakia Gunn was also murdered on the streets of Newark because she was gay.

[JackBeck]

1. From the comments section:

"Rayshon Holmes
was murdered the same night at the same time by the same man for the same reason that Shani Baraka was murdered - Rayshon was Shani's life partner, and had the misfortune along with Shani to be at Shani's sister's house when the sister's homicidal ex-husband came to call.
For some reason, Rayshon never entered the collective memory the same way Sakia and Shani did. I hope that as bluejersey moves forward with reporting on this story that it be remembered that there were two victims the night Shani Baraka was killed. No criticism implied - just a reminder.





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by: denniscmcgrath @ Fri Sep 21, 2007 at 13:04:16 PM CDT "
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How could I have forgotten about Amiri Baraka's daughter?

This is all so very sad.

[JackBeck]

2. The silence speaks volumes.

Both here and in the community.

So sad and depressing.