Dec 26, 2008  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR  | COMMENTS     

Last week’s shooting death of a gay man near Logan Circle has triggered renewed calls by gay activists for Mayor Adrian Fenty to convene a special meeting to address anti-gay violence in the city.

Gays & Lesbians Opposing Violence, a local group, said the Dec. 16 shooting death of Durval Martins, 35, at 11th and Q streets, N.W., was another in a series of attacks against gays in the city that has created an atmosphere of fear within the community.

“GLOV has requested on numerous occasions through your office to meet with you, but we have been repeatedly informed that you are not interested in a meeting at this time,” writes GLOV co-chair Chris Farris in a Dec. 20 letter to Fenty.

“We need your leadership at this time, and we need to know that you are listening,” Farris writes. “The  community is nervous and on edge, as violence around us continues to increase.”

Fenty has repeatedly rejected Blade interview requests since October but his office issued a statement late Tuesday.

“Like many members of the  LGBT community, I too am concerned and committed to improving public safety in all eight wards of the District,” Fenty said.  “Under the leadership of Chief Lanier, MPD has launched several new innovative initiatives, including increased community policing, improved inter-agency collaboration and strengthened partnerships with the public schools to aggressively reduce violent crime.  I call on all residents to continue to work together and with MPD to make our communities safe for everyone.”

Police said Martins was found dead shortly after 3 a.m. after a police officer on patrol nearby heard gunshots. According to a police statement, he was shot several times in his head and body.

Commander Rodney Parks, who heads the police homicide squad, said investigators have no evidence to classify the murder as a hate crime, and although investigators are uncertain over the motive, the attack could have been a “botched robbery.”

The police officer that responded to the scene discovered that Martins had his wallet in his hand as he lay unconscious on the street, according to an account by police.

Martins’ cell phone, cash, credit cards and jewelry were still in his possession, police said.

The murder occurred three months after Tony Randolph Hunter, a gay Marylander, died from a head injury he sustained in an attack at Eighth and N streets, N.W., as he and a friend walked from their car to the D.C. gay club BeBar. An 18-year-old District man is awaiting trial in the case on a charge of involuntary manslaughter.

Similar to the Martins case, police said they had no evidence to indicate Hunter’s murder was a hate crime, and witnesses reported that defendant Robert Hanna punched Hunter and knocked him down after Hunter allegedly grabbed his crotch.

A friend of Hunter’s who was with Hunter at the time of the attack has disputed that account, saying Hunter never touched Hanna and that the attack was unprovoked.

GLOV says it has learned from police and eyewitness accounts of at least 16 cases of anti-gay assaults in Washington since July.

One of the most recent incidents occurred at about 7:15 p.m. Dec. 20, when an unidentified male suspect assaulted a male victim while calling the victim anti-gay names as the victim attempted to withdraw cash from an ATM on the 1000 block of Vermont Avenue, N.W., according to a report by the police Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit.

During a Dec. 12 D.C. Council hearing on the city’s response to hate crimes, Farris and other GLOV witnesses testified that police officers appear to be failing to report some anti-gay assaults as hate crimes.

Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large), who convened the hearing, said information from witnesses raised questions about the accuracy of police statistics showing that anti-gay hate crimes have decreased in recent years.

In a Dec. 20 statement accompanying a copy of its letter to Fenty, GLOV said anti-gay hate crimes in D.C. — regardless of the total number — are disproportionately high compared to other cities.

“The national average of reported bias crimes against [perceived] GLBT individuals is about 15 percent, but in the District that number increases to an alarming 75 percent of the total bias crimes,” says the GLOV statement.

“Statistics aside, the recent murder of Durval Martins — the second death to occur in recent months of violent attacks — has heightened concerns of safety among the community,” says the statement.

Two days after the Martins murder, members of his family huddled together at a makeshift memorial at the murder site before making an appeal for the public to help police ...