Plumb Beach Still a Meeting Place for Some Men

A year after Michael Sandy was lured to a parking lot at Plumb Beach in Brooklyn under the pretense of a sexual encounter and then killed in an attempted robbery, the spot on Sheepshead Bay continues to be a place where men congregate for furtive homosexual encounters. John Fox and Anthony Fortunato were both convicted last week of manslaughter as a hate crime in the death of Sandy, who was struck by a car on the Belt Parkway, where Fox and Ilya Shurov chased him. The violent crime doesn't seem to be deterring the men who still sit by themselves in their cars, smoking and waiting––for what isn't entirely clear. The New York Times sent a reporter to observe the scene in the parking lot Friday night. He approached one of the cars and the driver said he had heard of Sandy's death and the parking lot's reputation, but that wasn't why he was there. Nonetheless, the older gentleman drove off with a younger man who approached his car soon thereafter. A perfunctory search of gay cruising sites indicates that Plumb Beach is still a popular site for meetings. One site rated the rest stop parking lot as 3 ("Average") out of 5 for safety and 5 ("Hot!") out of 5 for action [Warning: site page contains graphic images].

GerritsenBeach.net writes that there will be a vigil for Michael Sandy this afternoon at Plumb Beach, orchestrated by his parents. His mother is one person who wishes that the city would close the parking lot where her son met his killers. Other residents disagree, however, and think that more law enforcement and continued beach access is more appropriate.