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Suspects indicted after druggings, robberies involving NYC gay bars
By
Michelle Bocanegra
Published Mar 31, 2023
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By
Michelle Bocanegra
Published Mar 31, 2023
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A Manhattan grand jury has indicted multiple suspects over their alleged connection to a string of robberies, including two incidents in which men fatally overdosed last year after visiting gay clubs in Hell’s Kitchen.
Shane Hoskins, whose name was made public in an otherwise heavily redacted indictment, was arraigned Thursday on six counts of robbery, identity theft, grand larceny and conspiracy-related charges.
The indictment stems from robberies and druggings that preceded the overdose deaths of two men, Julio Ramirez and John Umberger, in spring of last year. New York City’s chief medical examiner determined those deaths to be homicides early this March.
The case involving Hoskins largely remains under seal. Hoskins’ attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The indictment accuses Hoskins of being involved in a conspiracy “to approach intoxicated individuals upon exiting a bar or nightclub, engage them in conversation, and offer and administer dangerous and illicit substances to them for the purpose of causing their incapacitation.”
Hoskins and other defendants would “then steal phones, credit cards, personal identifying information or other property once those individuals were further intoxicated and incapacitated,” the indictment alleges.
Defendants coordinated the time and place of each robbery and shared in the proceeds, according to the indictment. Since Ramirez and Umberger died, their families have said publicly that the men’s bank accounts had been drained.
Ramirez, a 25-year-old social worker from Queens, died from the effects of a mixture including fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, lidocaine and ethanol, the medical examiner’s office said earlier in March. He was found in the back of a cab in Lower Manhattan shortly after leaving a gay bar in Hell’s Kitchen.
Umberger, a 33-year-old political consultant visiting from Washington, D.C., died a month later in a townhouse on the Upper East Side, from a similar mix of substances without heroin. He had visited a Hell’s Kitchen gay club earlier that night.
Tagged
crime
new york city
public safety
Michelle Bocanegra
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