The NYPD has formed a task force to investigate at least a dozen non-fatal cases in which well-dressed victims were targeted by three men at gay bars, drugged, and robbed of tens of thousands of dollars.
The homicide squad separately is investigating at least two associated murders.
nypost.com
Linda Clary, the courageous mother of homicide victim John Umberger, 33, spoke out last week to warn other young New Yorkers about the menace lurking on their nights out.
Her son, a Washington, DC, political consultant, was drugged and robbed by three unidentified men believed to have targeted him at Eighth Avenue gay nightclub The Q NYC on May 28.
When Umberger’s body was found on June 1 in an Upper East Side apartment where he was staying, his cellphone was missing, and more than $25,000 had been transferred out of his accounts through cash apps such as Venmo and PayPal.
“This same group of killers have drugged, robbed and murdered countless young gay men in New York,” Clary told The Post.
Five weeks earlier, in near identical circumstances, Brooklyn social worker Julio Ramirez, 25, was found dead in the back of a taxi on the Lower East Side, an hour after he was seen in the company of three unidentified men leaving a gay club on West 46th Street, two blocks from The Q NYC, around 3:17 a.m. Thursdayon April 21. His phone and credit cards were missing and about $20,000 was stolen from his bank accounts and credit cards.
Preliminary toxicology reports show both Umberger and Ramirez died of drug overdoses, but evidence suggests they had been “roofied,” the colloquial term for someone spiking their drinks with date-rape drugs, sources say. Umberger’s toxicology tests found cocaine, lidocaine, and fentanyl in his system. Lidocaine is an anesthetic which causes confusion and drowsiness, and fentanyl is a deadly potent synthetic opioid responsible for the current US epidemic of drug deaths.
The homicide squad separately is investigating at least two associated murders.
‘Roofie robber’ spree turns deadly as 2 killed in NYC drugging attacks on gay men
“This same group of killers have drugged, robbed and murdered countless young gay men in New York,” one grieving mother told The Post.
nypost.com
Linda Clary, the courageous mother of homicide victim John Umberger, 33, spoke out last week to warn other young New Yorkers about the menace lurking on their nights out.
Her son, a Washington, DC, political consultant, was drugged and robbed by three unidentified men believed to have targeted him at Eighth Avenue gay nightclub The Q NYC on May 28.
When Umberger’s body was found on June 1 in an Upper East Side apartment where he was staying, his cellphone was missing, and more than $25,000 had been transferred out of his accounts through cash apps such as Venmo and PayPal.
“This same group of killers have drugged, robbed and murdered countless young gay men in New York,” Clary told The Post.
Five weeks earlier, in near identical circumstances, Brooklyn social worker Julio Ramirez, 25, was found dead in the back of a taxi on the Lower East Side, an hour after he was seen in the company of three unidentified men leaving a gay club on West 46th Street, two blocks from The Q NYC, around 3:17 a.m. Thursdayon April 21. His phone and credit cards were missing and about $20,000 was stolen from his bank accounts and credit cards.
Preliminary toxicology reports show both Umberger and Ramirez died of drug overdoses, but evidence suggests they had been “roofied,” the colloquial term for someone spiking their drinks with date-rape drugs, sources say. Umberger’s toxicology tests found cocaine, lidocaine, and fentanyl in his system. Lidocaine is an anesthetic which causes confusion and drowsiness, and fentanyl is a deadly potent synthetic opioid responsible for the current US epidemic of drug deaths.
