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A 37-year-old man was arrested on Sunday after he allegedly beat a 12-year-old boy in a Manhattan playground while calling the kid a “gay fa***t.”
According to New York Police, the alleged crime occurred on April 29, when Kevin Maxwell of Brooklyn confronted the tween victim outside a restroom at the Baruch Playground on the Lower East Side at around 6 p.m.
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“Are you stupid or something? You gay fa***t! Shut the f**k up,” Maxwell allegedly yelled at the kid before beating him with a belt. He then fled the scene.
Police released a sketch of Maxwell in an attempt to identify him, and he was arrested yesterday. He now faces charges of assault and menacing, both as hate crimes. He also faces a charge of acting in a manner injurious to a child, hate crime/menacing, and menacing.
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The victim only suffered from minor injuries as a result of the attack. Police say that Maxwell didn’t know the child prior to the incident and it’s not clear why he believed he was gay.