Sep 28, 2007  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO J  | COMMENTS     

A close friend of three college students who were shot to death execution style in a Newark, N.J., schoolyard in August said the students planned to join him in attending a black Gay Pride event in Queens, N.Y., the day following their deaths.

News of the students’ plans to attend the Aug. 5 event at New York City’s Riis Park Beach surfaced after a New Jersey gay group released a letter last week calling on Newark authorities to investigate the murders as possible anti-gay hate crimes.

The murder of the three students and the shooting of a fourth student, who is recovering from a gunshot wound to the head, shocked Newark’s citizens and became the subject of international news coverage.

“[W]e want to know why, although the murders were committed more than a month ago, the fact of the sexual orientation of the youth has never been a part of the media or public discourse of the murders,” said Newark gay activist James Credle in a letter to Newark Mayor Cory Booker.

“This happened despite the fact that several sources, including friends, boyfriends/lovers of at least one of the victims and perhaps one of the parents knew that one or more of the murdered students were gay,” Credle wrote.

He sent the letter on behalf of Newark’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer and Two-Spirited Concerns Group. The group released the letter to the press. On the day the group released the letter, Credle and other activists met with members of the mayor’s office and several members of Newark City Council, including lesbian Council member Dana Rone, to urge city officials not to ignore a possible anti-gay hate crime angle to the murders.

Rone released a statement calling for “further investigation” to bring “clarity as to the motives” of the assailants in the crime.

“I urge the Essex County prosecutor’s office to explore these concerns brought forth by the gay and lesbian communities in Newark,” she said in her statement.

“Several young people, friends and classmates of [victims] Terrance Aeriel, Dashon Harvey, Iofemi Hightower and Natasha Aeriel have come forward,” Credle said in his letter. “In their fear and grief, they are further driven to despair by the refusal of the city administration, the police and the media to acknowledge the fact that some of the deceased were members and friends of their community.”

Credle called on police and the Essex County, N.J., prosecutor’s office to investigate the case as a possible hate crime, based on the victims’ sexual orientation or race.

Police said Terrance Aeriel, 18, Dashon Harvey, 20, and Iofemi Hightower, 20, were lined up against a wall on the grounds of Mount Vernon Elementary School and shot point blank in the head. Authorities said Natasha Aeriel, Terrance’s sister, was also shot in the head and left for dead.

Aeriel survived the shooting, remained conscious on the night of the incident, and gave police a full account of what she saw, according to a report in the Newark Star-Ledger. After undergoing several surgical procedures, she is said to be recuperating.

Within a month of the incident, police filed murder and robbery charges against six males in connection with the case. Three of the six are juveniles.

Police and the mayor’s office continue to suggest the motive for the murders was robbery, pointing to a statement by Natasha Aeriel that one or more of the six accused assailants appeared to have announced a robbery.

However, Paul Loriquet, spokesperson for the Essex County, N.J., prosecutor’s office, said authorities are still investigating the case and his office has not disclosed an officially determined motive for the murders.

“We know robbery was a factor because they were all charged with robbery,” Loriquet said. “But was that the motive? That is still under investigation.”

Credle and other activists have said police and city officials appear to be ignoring evidence suggesting that the killings were hate crimes related to the victims’ actual or perceived sexual orientation. Credle told the Blade that he and others in the gay community have learned from friends and relatives of the victims that little of value was taken from the victims. He said friends claim all of their wallets were left at the scene.

Credle and others have questioned why the attackers, wielding guns, would have killed the victims if robbery alone was the motive.

Police have said all the ...