Twenty-one-year-old homeless man Anthony Bray has been charged with misdemeanor assault after last week’s harrowing apparent hate crime against 26-year-old Damian Furtch, outside a McDonald’s on West 3rd Street near Sixth Avenue. Video evidence portrays Bray and an accomplice beating Furtch, which the victim says was preceded by the two assailants shouting anti-gay slurs. Now Bray has informed investigators that he’s openly gay, too, and that Furtch “disrespected” him. Bray claims that his sexuality should exempt him from hate-crime charges; Furtch disagrees. At this time, no hate-crime charges have been brought against Bray, and police now suspect it may have been “just two guys having a fistfight.” [NYP]
