FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, March 30, 2023
Staten Island Man Sentenced to Prison for LGBTQ Hate Crime
Defendant Struck Two Victims with Metal Object and Shouted Anti-Gay Slurs
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a Staten Island man has been sentenced to up to four years in prison for assaulting two people outside of a deli in Flatbush, one of whom was an acquaintance.
District Attorney Gonzalez said, “Attacks victimizing the LGBTQ+ community have surged nationwide, and we have no tolerance for this abhorrent violence in Brooklyn. Today’s sentence holds the defendant accountable for this senseless and unprovoked attack and sends a strong message that those who commit hate crimes will face serious consequences.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Aaron Richard, 33, of Staten Island, New York. He was sentenced yesterday to two to four years in prison by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice John Hecht. The defendant pleaded guilty to third-degree assault as a hate crime on March 15, 2023.
The District Attorney said that, on July 8, 2022, at approximately 5:45 p.m., in the vicinity of 533 Ocean Avenue in Brooklyn, the defendant approached a 22-year-old man with whom he was acquainted as he stood in front of a deli with another person and shouted: “Yo, you f—–s got to go. Let’s get these f—–s out of here. You need to move off this corner.”
The defendant then struck the man in the face with a metal object, causing a laceration. When the second person tried to intervene, that person was struck in the hand with the metal object and suffered a cut.
The defendant was located and arrested on August 30, 2022.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Katherine Gardzalla, of the District Attorney’s Hate Crimes Bureau, and Assistant District Attorney Kelli M. Muse, Chief of the Hate Crimes Bureau.
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