Younggaymanhacked

Young Gay Man Hacked Apart

Page 1 of 4

Criminal Checks $1 State $17.95 - Nationa & Eviction Searches

Volume four, Issue 8 | February 24 - March 2, 2005

Services CRIME

Young Gay Man Hacked Apart

By MICK MEENAN Detectives in Brooklyn are working hard to apprehend the killer of Rashawn Brazell, a 19year-old gay Bushwick man, whose dismembered limbs were discovered in a Brooklyn subway tunnel last week.

gaycitynews.com Search ARCHIVES ONLINE Email the editor About Advertising

We also publish Investigators from the Brooklyn North Homicide Squad and the 79th Precinct have teamed up to solve a crime so gruesome in nature that some veteran investigators say it is the most ghastly homicide they have encountered, particularly in the way the at-large killer left a trail of body parts across the borough.

Coupled with last week’s unrelated shooting death of a man by his lover’s husband on a Chelsea subway platform, police officials acknowledge that high-ranking department brass are pressing Brooklyn detectives to solve the Brazell murder.

Speculation has arisen that the killer may be a gay man, in part because police have not classified the grisly murder as a hate crime, but also as the result of several leads that police are following.

As of yet, there are no suspects, but detectives are piecing together a chronology that led up to the victim’s death, including the possibility that Brazell left his Gates Avenue apartment on Monday, February 14, and some time thereafter met a man with whom he was sexually involved. Detectives said that it was possible that the two met on a gay telephone chat line, a fairly common method for some young gay men in New York City to meet sexual partners.

When asked on February 22, a police official confirmed that investigators had included the chat line scenario as a possibility, along with other scenarios, which the official would not divulge.

Detectives acknowledge receiving a number of telephone calls from other young gay men— “from all over the city, in the same age group as the victim”—who were offering other leads.

A police official also mentioned that investigators have not ruled out that Brazell met his murderer online, but that the young man’s home computer appeared to have been broken for the past several months, this despite Brazell’s apparent aspiration to be a Web designer.

Police have begun distributing a leaflet featuring Brazell’s photograph and requesting anyone with knowledge of the crime to contact them confidentially, advertising a $2,000 cash reward for information leading to an arrest and indictment. The leaflet photograph is from Brazell’s recent misdemeanor arrest for marijuana possession.

http://gaycitynews.com/gcn_408/younggaymanhacked.html

3/7/2005

Young Gay Man Hacked Apart

Page 2 of 4

The crime was first reported after transit workers stumbled upon a bloody trail in a subway tunnel about 400 feet north of the Nostrand Avenue A train station early on February 17. A member of a maintenance team installing lights came upon a blue, plastic recycling bag jammed against the tunnel wall from which jutted a human leg. Upon their arrival, police discovered another leg and an arm inside the bag.

The person’s head, torso and remaining arm were missing.

Police were able to identify the discovered body parts as Brazell’s from his fingerprints taken during the January arrest.

After interviewing the victim’s friends and relatives, it became clear that the handsome, ambitious young man, well liked by his neighbors and friends, had left home on the morning of Valentine’s Day, ostensibly to file his taxes. Apparently, Brazell had made arrangements to also meet a man, but had not disclosed that appointment to his mother, Desire Brazell, with whom he lived. Police said that the victim’s friends have told investigators that the two men were planning to go away for a few days.

“We’re not certain if [Brazell] ever made it to their meeting,” said a police official. “But, if he did, then this guy is important.”

In a New York Times report, a grief-stricken Ms. Brazell, who has since cut off contact with the news media, said that she was unaware that her son had a boyfriend and that he in fact had girlfriends. As for a motive for why someone would murder her son, she said, “The only thing I can think of is hate and jealousy,” adding, “He has been envied.”

Initial news reports said that on the morning that the body parts were discovered, a police forensics team also discovered a bag of bloody tools, including drill bits. However, on February 23, a police spokesman, Det. Brian Sessa discounted the relevance of the second bag of items, specifically saying the description of the bloody drill bits was erroneous. “It was more like rust,” said Sessa, who added that the bag of parts was discovered relatively far away on the opposite side of the tracks from where the body parts were found close to an emergency exit that led up to the street.

Then, on the morning of February 23, police made another important discovery when a worker at a Greenpoint paper recycling plant came upon the hacked-off torso of a male. Paul Browne, a deputy police commissioner for public information, in a telephone interview that evening, said, “The torso needs to await DNA testing before a positive identification can be made, but certain factors, like the recycling bag in which the torso was found, are similar to the bag in which the other body parts were found and lead detectives to believe that this is the same body.”

The scene of the second body-part discovery, 860 Humboldt Street, is in a Brooklyn industrial zone. A male worker who answered the telephone number listed for the company said, “I know what it is you’re talking about and you got the wrong number,” before hanging up.

Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for the city’s chief medical examiner, confirmed that on Wednesday afternoon, the torso was transported from the crime scene to the Brooklyn coroner’s office and that genetic samples would be delivered to the medical examiner’s Manhattan headquarters to determine if the torso belonged to Brazell.

Neither Borakove nor a police spokesman was able to state if the torso belonged to an African-American male, or if there was any indication of a sexual assault.

“Every body that comes in is immediately looked at the next day,” said Borakove.

When informed that the Brazell family was intending on holding the victim’s funeral on

http://gaycitynews.com/gcn_408/younggaymanhacked.html

3/7/2005

Young Gay Man Hacked Apart

Page 3 of 4

Thursday, Borakove said, “This is a very sad, tragic event,” and noted that officials in the medical examiner’s office were aware of the attention the case has gained in the gay community.

After some fairly comprehensive coverage on February 18 and 19, the city’s daily newspapers have dropped the story, an omission that Brooklyn detectives said surprised them considering the brutal nature of the crime. One police officer at the 79th Precinct, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said, “Well, maybe if this kid was an aspiring white model, people would be more concerned.”

Clarence Patton, an official with the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, said that the murder’s lack of coverage was not unusual considering the number of unreported hate crimes committed nationally against gay men. “We will work closely with the police as needed as they continue their investigation,” said Patton.

Bill Wren, the deputy chief of staff for City Councilman Albert Vann, who represented Brazell, said that the lawmaker was out of town, but was nevertheless “heartbroken over this.

Nobody should die because of their choice of lifestyle.” Wren said the district office has not gotten any telephone calls from citizens concerned with using the nearby subway stops or walking the streets.

A visit to the neighborhood on Tuesday night indicated a working-class area of sturdy row houses and apartment buildings, a few residents heading home in the cold, down otherwise deserted streets. Inside the vacant lobby of the victim’s Gates Avenue building, tenants and loved ones had erected a makeshift shrine of candles and a photo of Rashawn dressed smartly in a bow tie and winged-tip shirt.

Inside the precinct house, one police lieutenant took care to underscore his concern that the crime was an isolated incident, not a bias attack meant to terrify gay people. “Our major concern is that we don’t want this to happen again,” said the lieutenant. “Whatever the victim’s sexual orientation, this was somebody’s son and he died a brutal death.”

Detectives are asking anyone with information about the murder of Rashawn Brazell to call Detective St. John at 718-636-6655 or Detective Baker at 718-963-5370 or 1-800-577- TIPS. All calls are confidential.

Reader Services Email our editor | Report Distribution Problems Browse our archives Home Gay City News is published by Community Media LLC. Gay City News | 487 Greenwich St., Suite 6A | New York, NY 10013

Written permission of the pub must be obtainedbefore any contents of this newspaper, in or in part, can be reproduce redistributed.

Phone: 646-452-2500 | Fax: 646-452-2501 Email: editor@gaycitynews.com

http://gaycitynews.com/gcn_408/younggaymanhacked.html

3/7/2005

Young Gay Man Hacked Apart

Page 4 of 4

You are not authorized to view this page You might not have permission to view this directory or page using the credentials you supplied.

http://gaycitynews.com/gcn_408/younggaymanhacked.html

3/7/2005