Hate before slay
Stabbing of muralist was anti-gay crime: DA
A 51-year-old man charged with murdering a young muralist in Queens earlier this month used an anti-gay slur before plunging a knife into the man’s chest — and has been charged with a hate crime, prosecutors said Thursday.
The anti-gay motive surfaced as suspect James Williams was indicted on a murder as a hate crime charge for allegedly knifing Brooklyn resident Massiah Berkley in Far Rockaway on Labor Day.
Berkley, 29, was sitting on a bench next to Williams in a small park on Beach 20th St. near Mott Ave. about 3:55 p.m. Sept. 7 when the older man called him a “f——-,” sparking an argument, prosecutors said.
“The defendant ’s own words allegedly reveal that his bigoted perceptions sparked this deadly attack,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “Violence is never an acceptable option, but violence spurred by hate and prejudice is uniquely abhorrent and will always be prosecuted by this office to the fullest extent of the law.”
During the fight, Williams pulled out a knife and stabbed Berkley in the chest and the back of the head, according to prosecutorrs.
Medics rushed Berkley to St. John’s Hospital, but he could not be saved.
Williams, who claimed that he knew Berkley, was arrested a short distance away
“I pulled out a fishing knife and I [swung] it at Massiah a few times and hit him one time,” Williams told cops at the precinct, prosecutors said. He also told detectives he threw the bloody knife over the fence of a nearby construction site.
“I’ve had multiple altercations with Massiah in the past,” Williams told police.
Besides murder, Williams faces weapons possession and tampering with evidence charges. He will be arraigned on the indictment on Sept. 29 and faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted.
Berkley, a resident of Brownsville, made the trek to Far Rockaway to help his cousin care for her ailing mom, the young painter’s heartbroken mom, Kim Berkley, told the Daily News earlier this month. The cousin did not witness the fight.
“That’s why he was in Far Rockaway, so he could help [his cousin] take care of her mother, because her mother was in a nursing home,” Berkley said. “That’s what he do, he help everybody. But nobody was there to help him.”
“My son is lying somewhere in a f—-ing morgue right now with a tag on his toe, cold,” she added as tears streamed down her face. “For what? For what?”
Berkley was an artist who worked with Groundswell, a nonprofit that organizes local young people to create colorful murals to beautify neighborhoods and create social change.
One of the many murals he worked on is on the side of a vacant building on the corner of Pitkin Ave. and Strauss St., about 10 blocks from his home.