'This Is Clearly a Hate Crime'

Gay man shot dead in Village after gunman shouted homophobic slurs: authorities

Horrific story about the murder of a 32-year-old man late Friday night, just blocks from the iconic Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village. After repeatedly calling the man and his friend a litany of gay slurs, the killer pulled out a gun and said "Do you want to die here?" before shooting Marc Carson once in the cheek. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said that it was "clearly a hate crime,” the 21st bias attacks in the city so far this year -- will they ever stop? up from 13 at this point last year -- and the details are chilling. At the risk of being one of those "I was almost there" storytellers, Michael and I were coming out of IFC -- saw "Frances Ha," loved it! -- moments before this must have gone down. I actually "joked" to some friends of mine that we ran into at the movie that if anyone wanted to get murdered after the film, they should head over to the McDonald's across the street, where countless violent crimes have taken place in recent years. (Ha ha.) It was a gorgeous night, so I told Michael I wanted to walk home -- directly through what turned out to be the murder scene -- but Michael said he wanted to take the subway, as he'd already walked there and it was very late. We ended up getting on the A/C/E near the Waverly Diner. How tragically things can turn just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Condolences to Mr. Carson's friends and family. When is this anti-gay violence ever going to end?