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On November 19, Saturday, surveillance cameras at an LGBTQ+ bar in New York captured footage of a man throwing a brick at one of the windows. The New York Post stated that this is the 4th time the bar, reportedly named VERS, has been attacked this week.
In the footage of the incident, captured in Hells Kitchen in Manhattan, the bespectacled suspect can be seen walking up to the New York City gay bar before attempting to hit the window with a brick. Despite the fact that he walked right up to the glass, it appeared that he missed his target.
As the suspect lingered at the scene, a passing elderly couple seemed to stare at him before moving on. Soon after, the vandal could be seen leaving the scene.
Suspect could potentially be involved in the last few vandalism attempts on the LGBTQ+ bar
In an interview with the Post, bar owner David DeParolesa said that the bar had installed shatterproof windows as he had expected vandalism attempts by homophobes.
DeParolesa said:
“I thought about the glass when I first opened the space in July. It doesn’t shatter, but it does crack. It feels like yet another manifestation of hate against our community."
In an interview with NBC, DeParolesa said that he suspects that the individual recorded in the November 19 footage is potentially responsible for the last few vandalism attempts seen by the New York bar.
He said:
"Last night and several other nights in the past week, a man has come by with a brick and smashed our window during service when people are here. It's a pattern. It's the same window, it's a brick, it's a person that we finally caught on video last night."
He added that there are feelings of rising insecurity among the LGBTQ+ community, especially as the vandalism occurred on the same day as the shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in which a suspect armed with a long gun killed five people and injured 25 others in what is suspected to be a hate crime.
DeParolesa said:
"There's a lot of heightened fear in the community from attacks happening all over the country, and we just want to make sure we're providing a safe space and that's what we're doing."
In an official statement, President Joe Biden addressed the Colorado attack, as well as homophobic hate crimes in general.
Biden said:
"Places that are supposed to be safe spaces of acceptance and celebration should never be turned into places of terror and violence. Yet it happens far too often. We must drive out the inequities that contribute to violence against LGBTQI+ people. We cannot and must not tolerate hate."
The suspect involved in the vandalism attempts at VERS has not been identified.
