New York man gets life for homophobic hate crime at train station

Attacker has criminal history including subway assault of female police officer

A New York man will go to prison potentially for life for beating a doctor unconscious while hurling homophobic abuse at him.

The incident occurred in July 2020 at the Jamaica stop of the Long Island Rail Road in the New York City borough of Queens.

After a two-week trial, a jury found Kevin Carroll, 39, guilty of robbery and aggravated harassment as a hate crime.

“Our Office successfully prosecuted the defendant after he targeted a man waiting for a train at the Long Island Railroad Jamaica train station in July 2020 and hurled homophobic insults and slurs and then robbed the victim,” said Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz in a press release.

“Hate has no place in Queens. A jury weighed the evidence presented at trial and found the defendant guilty. Today, a judge ordered him to prison as punishment for his hateful actions.”

On 22 July, 2020, at approximately 7.20pm, Carroll, of Manhattan, approached the victim, a 40-year-old doctor, who was standing on the station platform and asked him for a dollar.

When the victim replied that he did not have a dollar, the defendant became angry and threw a water bottle at him before temporarily leaving the area.

Carroll quickly returned telling the victim that he found a dollar and threw it at him, before launching “a verbal harangue yelling homophobic slurs at the victim” and then punched him in the face, according to the DA’s office.

The victim fell to the train platform where he lost consciousness. Carroll then took the victim’s cell phone and gym bag and fled the scene.

Video surveillance at the station captured the defendant’s movements minutes before the attack and afterwards.

The victim suffered a permanent injury to one of his retinas due to the incident.

Carroll was arrested two days later on another matter and was identified by the arresting officer after viewing the surveillance video from the LIRR station.

Queens Supreme Court Justice John Zoll, who presided at trial, sentenced the defendant to a term of 18 years-to-life in prison as a mandatory persistent felony offender.

Carroll’s criminal history includes a 2000 conviction for attempted robbery of a 15-year-old, and a 2003 conviction for the attempted aggravated assault of a police officer who approached him as he panhandled in the subway.

When the female officer asked him for identification, Carroll body slammed her onto the platform and tried to shove her onto the tracks as a train entered the station.