BY PAUL SCHINDLER | Police announced the arrest of a suspect sought in assaults on two gay men at the Dallas BBQ in Chelsea on May 5.
Bayna-Lehkiem El-Amin, 41, of 598 E. 139th St. in the Bronx, turned himself in at the Seventh Precinct on the morning of Tues., June 16. He was charged with two counts each of felony assault and attempted felony assault.
El-Amin is charged in assaults — captured on video by a Dallas BBQ customer — that occurred shortly after 11 p.m. on May 5. In the video clip, a large, bald and bearded man who appeared to be a light-skinned black, is seen kicking Jonathan Snipes, 32, on two occasions as others in the restaurant pulled the two men apart.
After the second confrontation, Ethan York-Adams, 25, Snipes’s boyfriend, steered Snipes away from his attacker. But the attacker broke free from those restraining him, picked up a chair, and bashed both Snipes and York-Adams over the head, with York-Adams appearing to take the worst of it, falling to the ground. Snipes sat down, apparently dazed by the blow.
The day after the incident, Snipes told DNAinfo.com that after he accidentally spilled a drink, “A table near us audibly started making pretty gross comments about the two of us like, ‘White faggots, spilling drinks.’”
Snipes told the news Web site that he confronted the men — one of whom stood about 6-foot-4 — over the slurs. One of the men stood up, and the incident quickly escalated.
Hours after Gay City News, on the evening of May 6, first published an article online about the incident, Isaam Sharef, who had posted the video of the confrontation, responded to the newspaper’s queries from earlier in the day by writing, “Snipes didn’t go to the table to confront him. He went over and punched the guy in the face. Then the guy got up and attacked him.”
Since the May 5 melee, the New York City Anti-Violence Project and state Senator Brad Hoylman and City Councilmember Corey Johnson have said police were investigating it as a possible hate crime. However, the charges do not yet include hate-crime enhancements.
El-Amin reportedly has a total of 18 previous arrests –– on charges from assault and drug possession to credit-card fraud — in six states, including New York. Initially, police suspected he had fled the state.
Several online sites have asserted that El-Amin indicated on his Facebook page that he is gay, but Gay City News has been unable to confirm this.
