Bias Ruled Out in the Death of NYU Student

The death of a white New York University student who was struck by a car in East Harlem last week while allegedly fleeing a group of black would-be muggers crying “get the white boy” was not a hate crime, police said yesterday.Broderick Hehman, 20, a junior majoring in metropolitan studies, was struck by an automobile on April 1 when he fled into the street to escape. After slipping into a coma, he died three days later at Harlem Hospital. His death was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner on Thursday.Hehman had emerged from the subway stop at 125th Street and Park Avenue at about 8:30 p.m. and given a beggar a dollar when, police said, a group of five black teenagers ranging in age from 13 to 15, accosted him in front of a Popeye’s restaurant on 125th Street and demanded money. Police said no weapons were involved.At least one of the youths allegedly struck Hehman, who attempted to escape by running into 125th Street, where he was struck by a silver Mercedes-Benz. Police have not released the name of the 38-year-old driver and no charges have been filed against him.Police yesterday announced the arrests of the four suspects: Hassan Mayfield, 15; Andre Johnson, 15; Denzel Fell, 13, and Bobby Guzman, 13, all of Manhattan. They were each charged with second-degree murder. A fifth suspect is being sought.A spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, Barbara Thompson, said they are being charged as adults, but if convicted they will be sentenced as juveniles. The D.A.’s office is conducting its own hate-crime investigation, Ms. Thompson said.Although eyewitnesses allegedly heard shouts of “Get whitey!” from one of the suspects, the commanding officer of the Hate Crimes Task Force, deputy inspector Michael Osgood, said the incident was not racially motivated.Mr. Osgood described the teenagers as an “organized robbery team” who first targeted a Hispanic man, but were intimidated by a passing police car. Then Hehman came along.The crime, Mr. Osgood said, was motivated by “economic reasons.” For a hate crime to occur, Mr. Osgood said, “the main reason for the crime must be the identity of the victim. You can see how their purpose of meeting him, engaging him, was to rob him,” Mr. Osgood said.The racially charged remark of “Get the white boy!” was a “gratuitous slur,” Mr. Osgood said.The ruling drew a swift and sharp reaction from civil rights activists and black police officers. “At least in part it’s a hate crime,” the former director of the New York Civil Liberties union, Norman Siegel, said. “All racial violence is equally deplorable.’ Charging the teens with a bias crime, he said, would be an “acknowledgement of racial tension.”One of the founders of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, a fraternal organization for African American police officers, Eric Adams, agreed. “When you look at the logic they are using to come to that conclusion, it’s really troubling.”If the Police Department is saying identifying the race of the victim is merely a description, Mr. Adams said, then “we have to rewrite the current law for bias crimes. The mere fact his race was interjected, the courts have to decide why that was. Our position is it should be out of the hands of the Police Department and in the hands of the courts.“All people should be protected under hate crimes legislation,” Mr. Adams said. “A white guy can be as much a victim as a black guy.” Mr. Adams is a retired police captain.Both Mr. Siegel and Mr. Adams said they would meet with the Manhattan district attorney, Robert Morgenthau, to encourage him to include hate-crime charges against the suspects.Hehman, who lived on E. 78th Street, was on his way to a friend’s house to play videogames when the incident occurred. He graduated from the Summit School in Queens in 1993, according to Facebook.com, an online student social network.The university’s spokesman, John Beckman, said Hehman’s death was a “great tragedy for the NYU community.”In a makeshift memorial to Hehman on Facebook, his friends wrote messages expressing their grief. Patrick Ireland wrote, “J.B. I can’t do this … I want you back.” Another friend, Brian Dermody, wrote, “In the 10 days I knew you, I knew we were friends.”

Bias Ruled Out in the Death of NYU Student

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