A Manhattan grand jury is investigating the beating death of 62-year-old Jeffrey Babbitt, who was beaten to death by Martin Redrick, a black man in what is classified as a possible hate crime, the New York City Police Department Deputy Commissioner John McCarthy told CNN on Tuesday.
In the broad daylight attack on September 4, Martin allegedly screamed, "I'm gonna punch out the first white guy I see," New York police commissioner Ray Kelly said.
Witnesses at the beating said that 40-year-old Redrick, whose has used several aliases including Lashawn Marten, hit Babbitt so hard that bystanders could hear the force of Babbit's head hitting the cement, local news reported.
Witnesses said Marten then hit two more people before demanding to see police officers. He remained at the scene until police arrived, CBS Local News also reported. Marten was angered that no one wanted to play chess with him in the park, DNAInfo.com reported.
Marten has been charged with three counts of assault, as he made an appearance in court on Tuesday, and appointed a new lawyer.
Redrick has had his share of run-ins with the law, such as in 1998 when he had an attempted assault conviction for throwing a glass bottle hitting someone in the head, according to a spokesman at the New York Department of Corrections. He was paroled from state prison in 2001.
Becaue of what Redrick did subsequent to what he said in public, authorities are looking into whether this murder can be classified as a hate crime.
The victim Babbitt, meanwhile, was a comic-book enthusiast from Brooklyn whom friends described as mild-mannered, as reported by the New York Times.
"He was the kind of guy who always was doing favors for people. If you needed a ride to an appointment, you could call Jeff and he'd say, 'Yeah, I'll take you," his neigbor Robert Pizzimenti added.
