Attack On Gay Couple In Jackson Heights Restaurant Spurs Protest

JACKSON HEIGHTS, QUEENS — Activists are urging local businesses to step up efforts to protect vulnerable communities after a queer couple was assaulted last week in a Jackson Heights restaurant.

"If you want our money, you will step up during the hard times and protect our community," New York Assembly Member Catalina Cruz said during a press conference Tuesday hosted by Make the Road, a nonprofit that aids immigrant and working class communities.

The gay men, who identified themselves as Daniel and Alberto, were eating at the Pollos A La Brasa Mario on Roosevelt Avenue and 81st Street about 4:30 a.m. on Sept. 12 when a group of four to six men started arguing with the couple and punched and kicked them, according to the NYPD.

EMS rushed the men to NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst in stable condition, according to police, though Make the Road activists said the men were bloodied and unconscious.

"This is a really awful experience that I don't wish on anybody else," Daniel said during the Tuesday press conference.

The activists are calling for increased de-escalation and bystander intervention training in the neighborhood in light of claims that Pollos Mario employees didn't try to stop the attack — a portrayal that the restaurant disputes.

"The police is not always the only option," Make the Road's Bianey Garcia said. "We need to know how to respond to this violence."

Recently, two members of our LGBTQ family where attacked at Pollos Mario on Roosevelt Ave and 81st Street by other patrons. Today, we demand that businesses stand up and do the right thing when our community is under attack. Because protecting our LGTBQI family is everyone’s job. pic.twitter.com/iFRKVxbQaU
— Catalina Cruz, Esq. (@CatalinaCruzNY) September 24, 2019

Jacqueline Franco, who works for the restaurant chain but declined to give her title, said a manager tried to separate the groups of men, asked the couple to leave and called the police.

Franco said she reviewed surveillance video of the fight that indicates the couple started the fight, contrary to what activists claimed at their press conference outside the restaurant.

"I just don't think it's fair that they aren't taking responsibility for starting the incident," Franco said in an interview, adding that the men may have been intoxicated.

"It's just unfair to blame an entire establishment as anti-gay," she added.

The NYPD's hate crime task force is investigating the incident, according to a police spokesperson. There are no arrests.