Islan Nettles, 21, was brutally assaulted early Saturday morning on Frederick Douglass Blvd., cops said.
NY Daily News
August 25, 2013
It was the latest in a series of troubling bias attacks in the city, which is on pace to double the number of crimes against the gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual community in 2013 compared with last year.
In the most recent assault, Paris Wilson, 20, repeatedly punched Islan Nettles, 21, in the face after he and a group of friends spewed slurs at the victim, cops said.
Nettles had two Facebook profiles — one identifying himself as man and using his birth name, Vaughn Nettles, and another as a woman.
Wilson was friends with Nettles’ “female profile,” the victim’s family said.
Delores Nettles said her son was walking with two transgender friends on W. 147th St. near Frederick Douglass Blvd. early on Aug. 17 when the conflict began in front of a police stationhouse.
“As Islan turned around and started arguing, (Wilson) beat him and he knocked my baby on the floor,” she said. “And he kept beating and beating and beating my baby.”
Cops said Wilson — about to enter his senior year at Buffalo State University — continued the beatdown, even after Nettles fell backward and struck his head on the pavement.
One of Nettles’ friends ran inside and alerted cops, who found the victim “unconscious on the ground with a swollen shut eye and blood on her face,” according to a criminal complaint.
Police arrested Wilson on a misdemeanor assault charge after Nettles’ friend identified him.