Durval Martins (right), with twin brother Pedro.

Durval Martins, a 35-year-old gay man, was murdered in Logan Circle last December. Martins was found, dead in the intersection, with his wallet in his hand. He had been shot multiple times in the head. He had not been robbed. No arrests have been made in Martins’ case.

On Tuesday May 19, Gays and Lesbians Opposed to Violence co-chairs Chris Farris and Todd Metrokin will hold a vigil to raise awareness about potential hate crimes in Washington, D.C., and to “renew focus” on Martins’ murder. Farris and Metrokin submitted the following companion piece detailing the progression of Martins’ case.

On a cold and drizzly night this past December, Durval Martins, a 35-year-old gay man and one of nine children, said good-bye to his friends on 17th Street and started his walk home. He never made it. He was shot to death at the intersection of 11th and Q.

Here is what we know about Durval’s murder:

Read More “Durval Martins’ Unsolved Murder” »

Today, Mayor Adrian Fenty took a break from his pre-inaugural planning blitz to meet with the co-chairs of GLOV (Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence), Chris Farris and Todd Metrokin about what GLOV says is a crises-point in hate-bias related crimes against the gay community. Fenty and GLOV were joined by Police Chief Cathy Lanier and MPD Gay and Lesbian Liason Unit Sergeant Brett Parson. Farris and Metrokin had been petitioning for a meeting with the mayor for months, tapping allies in the D.C. Council, making calls to the Mayor’s office, and organizing an extended letter-writing campaign. They finally got their audience today GLOV’s report of the meeting is after the jump.

Read More “GLBT Activists Meet With Fenty on Hate Crimes” »

Last month, the leaders of local anti-hate crime initiative Gays and Lesbians Opposed to Violence (GLOV) called out Adrian Fenty for snubbing their request for a meeting about what they’ve characterized as acts of violence against D.C.’s gay community. This week, GLOV co-chair Chris Farris announced, and Metro Weekly reported, that Fenty will, in fact, meet with the group. D.C. police chief Cathy Lanier will also be in attendance at the meeting, scheduled for January 16. D.C. brass will meet with Farris and fellow GLOV co-chair Todd Metrokin.

The D.C. Council’s Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary—and chair Phil Mendelson—will hold a hearing on Friday to discuss the law enforcement and judicial responses to hate crimes in the District. Gays and Lesbians Opposed to Violence (GLOV) co-chairs Chris Farris and Todd Metrokin, as well as hate crime victim Wes Della Volla and friends of September assault victim Tony Hunter, will speak. From GLOV:

The hearing has been called in response to recent incidents that have heightened community concern over whether law enforcement is responding effectively to reduce the occurrence of hate crime. As indicated in the hearing notice released by Committee Chairman Phil Mendelson, “a recent Washington Post editorial cited FBI statistics that show while the District mirrors the nation in a reduction of racial-bias crimes, according the MPD statistics, hate crimes based on sexual orientation account for the ‘overwhelming majority of hate crimes in the city.’ “

The hearing will be held at noon on Friday, Dec. 12 in the Wilson Building’s 5th Floor Council Chambers, 1350 Pennsylvania Ave. NW.

Chris Farris and Todd Metrokin, co-chairs of local activist group Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence (GLOV), are questioning U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor’s handling of the Tony Hunter case. In September, Hunter died from injuries he sustained in an altercation outside Shaw gay bar BeBar; Last month, Robert Hannah was arrested in relation to Hunter’s death and charged with involuntary manslaughter in the case.

In a letter addressed to Taylor, Farris and Metrokin criticized the attorney’s office’s assertion that “Mr. Hunter’s death stemmed from an ‘altercation’ with the defendant that the victim sexually assaulted the defendant prior to the defendant’s attacking him.” The GLOV representatives called the allegation “absurd,” unsupported and against “common sense.”

“[G]ay men do not approach random men on street corners and grab their crotches—to believe this version of events, based solely on the self-serving words of someone facing murder charges, is to succumb to homophobic bias,” the letter reads.

GLOV’s full letter is after the jump.

Read More “Gay Rights Activists Question U.S. Attorney on Tony Hunter Case” »

On the books, it’s “Voluntary Manslaughter.” To activists, it’s a “Hate Crime.”

D.C. didn’t know much about Tony Randolph Hunter when police found his body, “lying supine on the ground” with a “laceration on the back of his head,” near Shaw’s BeBar on the night of Sept. 7. When police initially classified the 37-year-old Maryland man’s beating as a potential hate crime, they did so based on the few details they could ascertain about the victim: who he was and where he was going. The assailants, police reasoned, may have been acting on the same basic information—that Hunter was gay and headed to a gay bar—in an attack that had no immediately apparent motive.

In police reports, descriptions of suspects similarly lack specifics. In the case of Tony Hunter, the report identified the suspects as four black males between the ages of 19 and 22, dressed in blue jeans and T-shirts. Other recent attacks against gays produce similar descriptors. In the July 13 beating of Todd Metrokin, the assailants were described as black men between the ages of 17 and 21. In a Sept. 27 incident in Dupont, a gay couple dodged the word “faggot”—and a heaved brick—from a black man they later identified as a security guard at the Metropole.

Read More “The Death of Tony Hunter” »

Two organizers of the newly reformed advocacy group GLOV (Gays and Lesbians Opposed to Violence) have issued a press release questioning MPD’s handling of the Tony Randolph Hunter case. GLOV representatives Todd Metrokin (himself a recent victim of a brutal beating) and Chris Farris (who first brought Metrokin’s assault to attention in a posting on thenewgay.net), wrote today that GLOV is “concerned about the path the city’s case seems to be taking.” [Earlier today, the Washington Blade published new information about the story of the suspect charged in the case, Robert Hannah].

Metrokin and Farris list five outstanding questions they have with the city’s handling of the case, including the police’s change of the classification of the crime from “robbery” to “altercation” and the lack of charges filed against a second victim in the attack:

1) The police report classifed this as a bias crime based on sexual orientation, It also stated robbery was a motive, and listed a cellphone, car keys, and cash that was stolen. Now, the police claim that this was an “altercation.” Why the change?

2) The arrest warrant identifies two witnesses who claim that there was a sexual advance that preceded the attack. One is the defendent, and the other is someone who knows him. Is that all they have? The charge – voluntary manslaugher, instead of murder – seems to be based on this account (otherwise, it would be at least second-degree murder). Why would a case precede on that testimony, which is obviously suspect? The arrest warrant identifies another witness who confirms the second victim’s account, so it is baffling as to why the version put forth by the defendant and his friend seems to be guiding this case.

3) Why have no charges been filed in the attack on the second victim? The police report clearly indicates that there was a second vicitm with bruises.

4) Why hasn’t the DA’s office contacted the second vicitm, either about charges in his case or as a witness in Tony Hunter’s case?

5) Why have charges been filed against only one suspect, when the police report says there were 4, as does the second victim?

Full press release after the jump.

Read More “Hate Crime Victim Speaks Out On Hunter Case” »