Jack Price, the 49-year-old gay victim
of a brutal beating in Queens, New York, spoke Saturday to New York
daily the Daily News.
Price was attacked last week by two men
as he was coming out of a corner deli around 3AM in the middle-class
neighborhood of College Point in Queens, Police say.
Price managed to make his way home
after Daniel Rodriguez, 21, and Daniel Aleman, 26, kicked and
pummeled the 5-foot-6, 130-pound Price in the middle of the deserted
street. He was taken to Booth Memorial Hospital where officials say
he suffered a broken jaw, fractured ribs and a lacerated spleen.
“I thought I died,” Price told the
paper. “I was bleeding all over the place.”
“Better it was me. Someone else may
not have survived it,” he added.
Price says the two men followed him to
the store and called him a “stupid faggot” and “dumb faggot”
in Spanish.
Police nabbed Aleman on Sunday and
Rodriguez on Tuesday. Rodriguez was taken into custody by the United
States Marshals Services at a relative's home in Norfolk, Virginia.
“I hope they rot in jail,” Price
said. “I don't understand how someone can do this to somebody.
They almost killed another human being.”
During his capture, Rodriguez denied he
was homophobic, a claim his sister was willing to support.
“This wasn't a hate crime.”
Christina Rodriguez told the paper. “If he's guilt of anything,
he'll man up to it.”
Officials, however, have said that
Rodriguez has admitted to using an anti-gay slur. He also allegedly
told detectives, “I was angry, cause Jack is disgusting.”
New York City Council Speaker Christine
C. Quinn and a group of city and state officials condemned the attack
on Tuesday during an impromptu press conference in front of the
hospital.