A final suspect has surrendered to police in the case of a horrific string of anti-gay beatings that occurred in the Bronx last weekend. Seven men were arrested last week, and an eighth this weekend. Rudy Vargas-Perez, the suspect who was taken into custody yesterday, did not go willingly. He will likely be charged with gang assault, sexual abuse, and unlawful imprisonment — all as hate crimes — for the attacks on four men. The attackers, who were all reportedly affiliated with the gang the Latin King Goonies, had been using an abandoned home at 1910 Osborne in a working-class section of Morris Heights. The structure itself was a classic example of a subprime catastrophe — changing hands many times in the years leading up to the financial meltdown, for ever-higher prices and with ever-ballooning loans. Its final owner went bankrupt and defaulted on mortgages with Citibank and a California loan company (which itself failed). Even though it was across the street from a school, the home quickly became the headquarters for the gang.
9th Suspect Is Arrested in Attacks in the Bronx [NYT]
Evil clubhouse of sadistic Bronx torture gang is subprime example of world gone mad [NYDN]
