![]() Bernie, who worked for a local author and sold e-cigarettes for extra income, was “absolutely” not in a gang, Juan said.)Īnother of Bernie’s cousins, Gasdeli Pantaleon, said she hoped the family’s effort might offer a measure of protection to Arizona’s LGBTQ community. (Authorities have charged the suspects with assisting in a criminal street gang. In Juan’s view, calling the crime what he believes it is is key to heading off an inaccurate and demeaning portrayal of the murder - “another brown-on-brown gang crime,” Juan said. ![]() To their great frustration, he said, they’ve made little headway, prompting the family to call for a reform to the state’s hate crime statute. ![]() Juan said his family has pleaded with local and federal prosecutors to pursue hate crime charges. “It’s clear as day to everybody who sees this - he was targeted for being gay.” “There’s more than enough evidence here,” Juan said. In the online conversation, which occurred in a group chat and was included in a probable cause statement from the Phoenix Police Department, some of the suspects made “derogatory remarks regarding the victim’s sexuality and a derogatory statement about homosexuals not being allowed in the northside” of Phoenix.
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