Three detectives assigned to
probe ‘gay bashing’ incident
~ No arrests made as yet ~
St. Maarten--Three detectives have been assigned to investigate the alleged hate crime involving the brutal beating of a senior CBS News producer and a research specialist for the CBS TV programme 48 Hours.
St. Maarten Chief Prosecutor Taco Stein has ordered an investigation into the response time of police who were called to the scene of the incident near Sunset Beach Bar around 3:00am on Thursday, April 6.
“We are in the process of hearing witnesses,” Stein told The Daily Herald Tuesday evening.
He said he had asked the St. Maarten Police Chief Commissioner Derrick Holiday to investigate and find out what the response time was for the officers who arrived on the scene.
That detail is considered important, because one victim, CBS News producer Richard Jefferson, stated that police had not responded although there had been several calls to report the matter.
The St. Maarten police reported that they had responded by sending two patrol officers to the scene, but on arrival there they had been informed that the victims had already been transferred to St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC).
Stein said several witnesses had already been heard, but up to last night there had been no arrest in connection with the incident. He said it was difficult to give details about the progress being made in the investigation, as this might alert the perpetrators.
Stein said his focus was currently on the investigation itself.
“Whether or not the police arrived on time at the scene, we are investigating the matter. … We have three detectives (on the case) and we are prepared to add another to hear witnesses and do whatever is necessary for this investigation,” he explained.
The news about the beating sustained by Jefferson and Ryan Smith is gaining widespread media attention in the United States with ABC News, CBS News and CNN News featuring reports about the incident.
Following a news brief aired on ABC’s Eyewitness News (St. Maarten Cable TV Channel 26) Tuesday around 5:30pm, a correspondent stated that the incident was not good for tourism in St. Maarten. ABC showed Jefferson with hair shaved from one side of his head, which had a C-shaped wound. He said, “The response from police has been no response.”
Smith is now listed in critical condition with a fractured skull and damage to his brain. A friend of his said during that report that he had been inside Bamboo Bernie’s with Smith and the suspects had been calling them names because he was hugging Smith.
The two and other friends left the club and walked past Sunset Beach Bar where they were attacked by four men who were travelling with two women in a car. They reportedly tried to run Smith over, then took a wheel wrench and beat him about the head.
Jefferson was walking a short distance behind, rushed to the scene to find out what the commotion was about and was struck with the wheel wrench.
He told this newspaper he had been coming to the island for more than 15 years and had enjoyed the “friendly island, especially Cupecoy Beach” where he was able to be himself, but felt that the tides were changing. He said his beating was probably a “gay-bashing.”
According to reliable reports reaching this newspaper Tuesday, the Island Government is likely to issue an official statement on the incident today, Wednesday.
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