New York City officials announced Thursday a new program to re-examine unsolved drugging, robbery and homicide cases involving LGBTQ victims, including some decades-old cases.
The announcement, made by the New York City Police Department and the mayor’s office, comes more than a year after the deaths of Julio Ramirez and John Umberger, who were killed in April and May of last year. Authorities later said their deaths were the result of a drug-induced robbery scheme that involved at least 16 victims, many of them men visiting gay bars.
News of the program also comes as several of the victims have alleged the NYPD did not initially take their cases as seriously as they had hoped, NBC News reported a few months ago. At the time, the NYPD did not respond to questions regarding victims’ allegations.
Under the new initiative, LGBTQ victims whose cases have not been solved, and friends and family members of deceased queer victims, can request that the cases be re-examined by filling out an online form on the NYPD’s website. The form, which appears to be the general form to message the police commissioner, will be reviewed by officials in the NYPD’s Detective Bureau, who will then facilitate these requests.
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Read the full story at NBCNews.com here.
