Heinous crimes reported in Queens in August

In the span of about a week, several major crimes were reported in Queens, including a hate crime, two murder-suicides and an alleged gang rape.
On Saturday, August 14, at approximately 2:30 a.m., Kevin Brown, 19 of Flushing, and Paul Heavey, 20 of Little Neck, allegedly began yelling racial slurs at four Asian Americans, Reynold Liang, John Lu, David Wu and Wing Chung Poon, who were driving in Douglaston. The incident escalated and Liang and Lu were allegedly physically assaulted by Brown and Heavey.
&#8220Queens County is the most culturally diverse county in the nation and crimes of hate will never be tolerated,” Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said of the incident.
During a press conference held on Monday, August 14, Liang, the driver of the vehicle the four young men were in, said that the incident made him very angry, especially since it happened in his own neighborhood and that he hopes no one else has to go through it.
&#8220I definitely don't want this to happen to anyone else,” Liang said. &#8220Queens is a nice area. It's my home.”
At 3 a.m. on Tuesday, August 8, 38-year-old Louis Vallejo killed ex-girlfriend Carolina Perez before killing himself with a .25-caliber handgun. The incident took place at the El Paisa Caf in Jackson Heights following an argument between the two.
A second murder-suicide occurred the next day, Wednesday, August 9, in Ridgewood. The unnamed man, who was a corrections officer at Rikers Island, was heard arguing with his wife. At around 11 p.m. that night, he shot her before also killing himself.
In another incident taking place last week, a 17-year-old Queens girl who had snuck into the SoHo club Don Hill is alleging that she was gang-raped by three men. She allegedly passed out in the back of a cab on her way home and woke up as she was being sexually assaulted in a basement apartment.
The victim, who attended Aviation High School in Long Island City, alleged that at least one of the perpetrators had been a classmate of hers.
Alleged sexual predator Keith Poladian, a 40-year-old resident of Ridgewood, was arraigned last Thursday. He has been charged with first-degree sexual abuse, forcible touching and endangering the welfare of a child following incidents with an 11-year-old girl and 12-year-old girl. He is currently being held without bail.
In addition, last week, Queens residents Antoinette Bryan and Angelita Dunkley, filed a lawsuit against Crobar, a nightclub in Chelsea, following a July 13 incident. The two women, aged 39 and 35, were shot in the legs at the club that night when gunfire erupted.
The lawsuit, which is seeking $20 million for each woman, claims that the club did not have as much security as it should have, including metal detectors.