Anti-Gay Hate Crime In Brooklyn?

I got several emails from NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn's office this morning, the last of which said:

I was outraged to learn this morning that two men were assaulted at Kossuth Place and Bushwick Avenue in Brooklyn, and especially horrified to learn that anti-LGBT and anti-Latino slurs were used by one or more of the assailants – raising this event to the level of a hate crime. My office is in touch with the family of the victims and offers our prayers. We have also been in touch with the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force, and thank them for their immediate response and hard work. We are confident that those who committed this crime will be apprehended. Together we are calling on all who might have any information about this crime to come forward immediately to the NYPD.

Those who perpetrated this crime must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. This cowardly display of hate against two innocent men only re-enforces the need to continue to inform and educate the public about the destruction that hate can cause. We all must open our eyes to the hate that exists around us and work together to fight against those that demonize others and allow stereotypes to lead them to acts of unconscionable violence. We are all partners against hate. When we come together, to stand up, every time we witness an act motivated by hate, we will send the message that we will not stand for the destruction that comes along with it.

Members of the City Council, community leaders, clergy, and I will hold a press conference December 8th at 12:30pm on the steps of City Hall to continue to stand up for the victims and to speak out against this vicious crime and all crimes perpetrated by hate.

Quinn's press officer couldn't give me a news link to the story, but Andres Duque over at Blabbeando just found the first report:

Two Ecuadorian brothers were beaten, one critically, during an apparently unprovoked attack in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn Sunday morning that may be a bias crime. The victims were walking home from a bar when they were attacked by three or four men, who jumped out of an SUV, at the intersection of Kossuth Place and Bushwick Avenue at around 3:30 a.m. The alleged suspects did not say anything as they began attacking the two brothers. But during the attack, the suspects used anti-Latino and other racial slurs as they beat the Ecuadorian brothers. One of the brothers, a 31-year-old man, was rushed to Elmhurst Hospital in critical condition. The other brother has less serious injuries. No suspects were taken into custody.

It sounds like Speaker Quinn's office knows more about the story than has currently been released to the press. More on this when I get it.