YAPHANK, N.Y. — Seven high school students looking “to beat up some Mexicans” attacked an immigrant from Ecuador on a Long Island street, with one of them fatally plunging a knife into the man’s chest during the brawl, police said.
A prosecutor compared Marcello Lucero’s death over the weekend to a lynching, and the attack was officially labeled a hate crime by Suffolk County authorities. Some outraged supporters of Latino immigrants suggested that recent crackdowns on illegal immigration fomented an atmosphere of intolerance that contributed to the attack.
The teenagers — one junior and six seniors at Patchogue- Medford High School — were arraigned Monday on gang assault charges and entered not- guilty pleas. The teen believed to have wielded the knife, 17-year-old Jeffrey Conroy, was also charged with manslaughter as a hate crime. His attorney did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.
Lucero, 37, worked at a dry- cleaning shop in Riverhead. A friend of the victim said Lucero moved to the United States 16 years ago.
