The man arrested for fatally stabbing a 69-year-old by a subway station in Queens was charged with murder, but the Queens DA isn't charging him with a hate crime. According to DNAinfo, there isn't enough evidence to support the murder as a hate crime charge, but that could change later.
However, the suspect, Steven Torres, did allegedly tell police that he stabbed the victim Ever Orozco because he thought the retiree was "blowing kisses" at him near the 90th Street subway station on Monday. The NY Times adds, "It was not the first time that Mr. Torres had reacted violently to what he said were the advances of an older man in recent days, the police said: last week he stabbed a 47-year-old co-worker for what he told detectives were similar actions... Police officials said that Mr. Torres had not been formally charged with the earlier stabbing assault, though such charges were likely. Investigators would also be looking at it as a possible hate crime."
Witnesses have said that Torres wasn't provoked in any way and Orozco's widow Alba said that that she heard her husband's screams from a doctor's office, "When I was sitting there, I hear someone outside saying 'Help! Help! Help me." Orozco had left her in the waiting room while he was looking for parking.
Alba Orozco also told DNAinfo, "[On Monday], when I say, 'Bye Papi, I love you. You've been the best husband and I love you forever.' What can I do? I can cry ... no... My husband, he's not with me. We were out all the time together, everywhere. Now, I am alone." She also doesn't think her husband was making a pass, "My husband — I never saw anything gay, never, never. I never saw my husband blow a kiss," she said.
Queens DA Richard Brown called Torres' alleged attack, "violent and ruthless" and promised "charges against him will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
