by Frankie Edozien

The savage beating of Michael Sandy, a Brooklyn gay man, by a bunch of young toughs who’d lured him to a quiet Brooklyn beach for a hook-up, has sent shockwaves through the city. The high-profile case has put a spotlight on a world most gay men know well, but one that hasn’t penetrated the general public - that of Internet hook-ups.

Sandy’s death last Friday, when his family took him off life support, shocked gay and straight New Yorkers. The death was reminiscent of other recent headline-grabbing hate crimes, such as the beating of Glenn Moore, a black man, by a white man wielding a baseball bat in Howard Beach, Queens; and entertainer Kevin Aviance’s brutal beating by a gang of youths in the East Village last June.

What complicates this case is that, in addition to being gay, Sandy was a black man whose attackers were younger white men. According to police reports, they plotted to pick him up from a popular gay dating Web site, adam4adam.com. Sandy, who worked on Long Island, apparently believed he was meeting a man for possible sex. He had been exchanging instant messages with him.

But investigators believed that instead, four college-age friends were luring him from his Williamsburg home to the other side of town, Sheepshead Bay, to rob him.

All four had allegedly gathered at the home of Anthony Fortunato, 20, on Oct. 8. Posing as one gay man, and using the AOL screen name ’Fireyefox’ they proposed a nighttime hook-up. John Fox, 18, a college student who owned the screen name, waited for him at street corner, with his buddy Fortunato.

But Sandy came took one look at the two and drove off. Investigators later said they believed he didn’t want to have group sex or may have been suspicious of being set up. Back at his apartment, however,, Sandy believed ’Fireyefox’ when he persuaded him to come back and promised him that they’d be alone.

Fireyefox and his friends, posing as one man, asked him to come back with $100 for a hotel room, Investigators, combing through his Instant Messages on Sandy’s home computer, believe he initially balked, but then agreed to bring a blanket for a rendezvous on the beach.

The last IM was sent at 8:50 p.m., Sandy departed, leaving his computer on and a trail of electronic IMs for cops to follow after his demise. Sandy found Fox on the same street corner and they drove in his blue Mazda the short distance to the parking lot at the deserted Plumb Beach.

Once there, according to police reports. Fox said he needed to use the bathroom and walked towards the beach where his three friends lay in wait and out of sight. With Sandy out of his car, all four confronted him.

Ilye Shurov, Fox’s buddy, then punched him. A brutal pummeling began. It’s unclear who threw punches after Shurov, but Sandy got away and drifted on the Belt Parkway, the busiest highway in South Brooklyn, which links the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and the Manhattan bridges and tunnels with the Southern State Parkway, the Rockaways and the Van Wyck Expressway. Sandy ran directly into the speeding traffic while shielding his face with his hands.

Two of the men turned and ran.

Eyewitnesses told cops that Shurov and another man chased Sandy with Shurov, 20, throwing another punch, Sandy turning and running right smack into the path of a speeding vehicle.

The driver didn’t stop and hasn’t been identified. Beaten and wounded, Sandy’s attack wasn’t over yet. The criminal complaint against Shurov cited witnesses, who he rifled through Sandy’s pocket before running away. All four reunited later that night at Furtunato’s home.

By Friday, Oct. 13, the Sandy family requested that their comatose relative be taken of life support. Sandy’s severe brain damage was irreversible.

“How many more black gay women and men…have to be beaten, killed, or attacked, before we as a civil society can accept love?” fumed City Councilwoman Letitia James, a Brooklyn Democrat, in an interview with EDGE NewYork.

“Not straight love, but love in all its forms. How long will we as a society continue to create a hostile atmosphere for gays who only seek to express their love openly?” asked James, who represents Ft. Greene, an area known as “Chocolate Chelsea” for the large number of gay black residents.

“If we continue this atmosphere gay men and women and gay youth will continue to search for love and intimacy under the cover of darkness and risk being victimized,” she warned. James is notable for being a staunch advocate for ending gay bashing and homophobia, especially among African-Americans.

She blames a culture of silence from the governor’s mansion to City Hall on these issues for fostering the hostile environment.Government can no longer put its head in the sand and act as if violent attacks on gays are infrequent agreed, City Councilwoman Yvette Clarke.

“There was a plot a foot to target this young. So goes my brother so goes I. It’s time that we embrace ourselves in our total humanity, every life is valuable,” said Clarke, who is likely to be elected to Congress. “I will take this fight wherever it needs to go, to those communities that continue to stigmatize discriminate and to set themselves apart as superior to others, we say; ’Your days are numbered.’

Race has always been an issue in New York City politics and government. But racial issues, mixed with gay issues are sometimes a combustible mix that many politicians avoid.

The scene of the crime, tiny Plumb Beech has been “a make out lane for years,” said Lew Fidler, the local councilman. It’s certainly had its share of gay and straight trysts. It certainly needs more police attention than the average street corner.” But it is filled with criminals? Not more than any place else he says.

Fidler is furious that the driver still hasn’t turned himself in and believes he too shares some blame: “We’d like to find this person. It’s hard to imagine that the driver managed to miss the fact that he ran somebody over.” Certainly the driver doesn’t share as much blame as the four “cretins” but at least by now he should have turned himself in, Fidler said.

Mayor Bloomberg, and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn separately voiced outrage and commended the New York Police Department for their detective work and swift arrests.

Fox, Shurov, and one Gary Timmons were arrested within days. Fortunato was question by cops but hasn’t been arrested. Still a sense of outrage has been missing from many city officials, often so loquacious on every issue.

The City Council’s Black Latino & Asian caucus has remained silent. The Brooklyn borough president’s office has not spoken up. At a City Hall rally with gay black leaders on Monday, only Clarke and James bothered to turn up.

“Unfortunately what this tragic senseless murder has outlined for us is that in New York, even today, our comfort and safety as a community is an illusion,” Clarence Patton, of the New York City Anti-Violence Project, (AVP), told EdgeNewYork.

Hate crimes aren’t a Big Apple problem, Patton concluded. “They are not an American problem, they are a world problem. But we like to believe that in so many ways New York’s better at accepting diversity.”

“I ask all the people who are in charge, what are you doing to help us?” asked an emotional Kevin Aviance. The popular drag performer said he’s lucky he survived his attack but Sandy’s death should be more than a wake-up call signaling that the lives of black gay men are vital to New York..

“All I ask is that New York, you have to do something. We are all equal here. We have lives. We have families, we work.” And to those who would attack gays, Aviance said: “you’re killing a doctor, you are hurting a lawyer, you’re hurting a poet, and you’re hurting a designer. Please stop the hurting!”

Zachary Jones, a bishop of the Unity Fellowship Churches, said not just government but the entire city must take responsibility and share the blame for fostering an atmosphere where “it’s okay to kill a faggot. We as a community must take responsibility each time we create an environment of hate and an environment of violence and the devaluing of a life or lifestyle that we do not agree with,” Jones said.

“This is the end result. We will not tolerate this kind of message that goes out continuously from pulpits, schools and others that is against our community,” the bishop added.

Tokes Osubu, of the Gay Men of African Descent (GMAD) said black gays can’t keep rallying when they are killed. “It just isn’t working anymore. Michael Sandy’s death is proof of that. Whenever one of us is attacked, all of us are attacked. And whenever one of us is brutally murdered, a part of us also dies. We need a stable community of civic leaders,” Osubu said.

But some black gay leaders still have hope.

Mark McLaurin of the New York State Black Gay Network has reached out to Governor Pataki’s office and Mayor Bloomberg. There is a plan to have a multi-media campaign stressing that it’s not okay to hate. The program could also be enhanced by actions from the New York City Council where the openly gay speaker, Christine Quinn, has said the city will have zero tolerance for hate crimes. “We need not just outrage but resolve [from government]. Enough is enough,” McLaurin said.

Meanwhile, Fox, Shurov and Timmins have been indicted on murder charges. Sandy will be buried on Thursday October 19. “Hopefully there will be enough the charge the other guy in this,” Fidler said. Only time will tell if Sandy’s death will bring about an end to the complacency of government leaders to brutal gay bashings in New York.