The NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force is questioning four suspects who they believe are responsible for the beat-down of an openly gay black man in Williamsburg, sources said.
The suspects, believed to be Hasidic men, attacked Taj Patterson, 22, so badly on Dec. 1 that they broke his eye socket, cops said.
The victim had been out drinking on a party bus when he decided to take a walk on Flushing Avenue around 5 a.m., cops said. That’s when the group surrounded him and started pummeling him while screaming anti-gay remarks at him, Patterson told investigators.
He suffered a broken eye socket, torn retina, and cuts to his right knee and hip, cops said.
The driver of a B57 bus pulled over and tried to intervene — taking out her cellphone and starting to snap pictures, cops said.
That’s when the group of hotheads fled, leaving Patterson bloodied on the ground, sources said.
As they fled, one of the men took his right shoe and threw it on a roof, the sources said.
Patterson was treated at Woodhull Hospital and released after undergoing surgery to reattach his retina.
Police are still searching for a fifth suspect they believe is linked to the crime.
Charges against the suspects are pending.