November 21, 2022
Watch: Brick-Throwing Perp Caught on Video Vandalizing NYC Gay Bar
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Manhattan gay bar VERS was targeted three times by a brick-hurling vandal before the fourth time turned out to be a charm and a suspect was caught in the act on security video.
Police are now looking for the man whose image was caught in footage recorded Nov. 19, local news channel NBC New York reported.
David DeParolesa told the news channel, "Last night and several other nights in the past week, a man has come by with a brick and smashed our window during service when people are here."
"It's a pattern," DeParolesa said. "It's the same window, it's a brick, it's a person that we finally caught on video last night."
In the video, a man with close-cropped hair wearing a light-colored coat edges into the frame before abruptly throwing something and then darting off.
"The reinforced window took most of the force from the hurtled projectile," NBC New York detailed, but the act of property destruction was not without risks to patrons. As the news channel noted, "Saturday's incident took place at the peak of the evening's nightlife activity when the bar was filled with patrons."
NBC New York pointed out that the Saturday night attack took place the same day as a mass shooting at a Colorado Springs gay bar. Reports on that gun rampage say that 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich entered Club Q just before midnight on Nov. 19 and promptly opened fire, killing five people and injuring many others. The quick action by a patron who heroically tackled Aldrich, yanking his gun away and then striking him with it before pinning him down, saved untold lives, the city's mayor told the press.
"Had that individual not intervened this could have been exponentially more tragic," Mayor John Suthers noted.
Local leaders in New York condemned the acts of vandalism targeting the Mahattan bar, Pix-11 relayed.
"This man has thrown bricks at the window of Versbarnyc FOUR times in recent weeks," City Councilman Erik Bottcher tweeted.
"These are hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community. Please help us identify him."
In a tweet of his own, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine declared, "The epidemic of anti-LGBTQ+ violence is national."
"A well-known gay bar on Manhattan's west side has been attacked repeatedly in recent weeks. We can not stand for this."
To see the video footage in larger size at NBC New York, follow this link.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
