Sunday, August 14, 2011

NYPD asking for your help in the Gavin DeGraw beating; plus, other important questions!

As every media outlet in the media outlet world reported, some people jumped pop singer Gavin DeGraw early Monday morning on First Avenue near Sixth Street... According to his website, he suffers from a concussion, broken nose, black eyes, cuts and bruises.

Now, the NYPD has papered the First Avenue corridor with these flyers...



Meanwhile, several important questions remain. Such as:

1) Who, exactly, is Gavin DeGraw anyway?

Good question! One that several readers asked after reading about all this. I don't know much about him either. So, according to Wikipedia: Gavin Shane DeGraw (born February 4, 1977) is an American musician and singer-songwriter. He is known for his songs "Chariot", "Follow Through", "I Don't Want to Be" (which is featured as the theme song for the television drama series One Tree Hill (since 2003), and "In Love with a Girl."

2) Was he drunk at the time of the attack?

Some reports suggest that he had left a "group of drinking buddies" and was walking alone at the time of the attack. However! His brother told the Post that Gavin was not drunk when the incident occurred and that he "had nothing but cranberry juice to drink" that night.

3) What does he remember about the attack?

Not much, apparently! "Honestly, I don't remember much. I only know I can recover from here," he tweeted on Aug. 9.

4) How many people jumped him?

News sources have mentioned two and three assailants.

5) Did the people know that he was some famous singer-songwriter?

Apparently not, according to anonymous sources at the Daily News.

6) Why did the assailants jump him?

Well, you can likely insert a joke here about people not liking his music. But! According to this report — "These guys jumped him out of nowhere," a source close to the singer told Us Weekly. "It's weird because they didn't take anything, I think they did it for sport."

7) Are there witnesses?

Apparently not, per the Daily News again. Which is why the NYPD is posting the flyers along First Avenue hoping to catch a break.

8) Why are you writing about this?

Because it happened in the neighborhood. Plus! SEO!

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Like him or hate him, this could happen to anyone and is f=d up.

EV Grieve said...

@ anon

Very true.

Jeremy said...

Yea - this is pretty messed up. I hope they catch those punks and send 'em to Rikers, so they can see what it's like to get jumped.

Hey19 said...

Greive always such a SEO whore... ha.

Very scary, as noted above, scarier if it was just random and senseless... Not a fan of his music or anything, but hate to see anyone get so messed up.

Jeremiah Moss said...

those NYPD signs are everywhere. like on every other door, every lamp post, mailbox, etc., in the vicinity of the attack. that doesn't happen for everybody who gets assaulted in the EV. just saying.

Victoria said...

That was my thought too, Jeremiah. Rather worrisome.

Anonymous said...

I think they are making a big deal because this kind of assault has become more rare in the EV and they don't want the activity flaring up again.

Anonymous said...

cops didn't post flyers for the two girls who got mugged and punched in the face on 11th and B a couple of weeks ago..

Anonymous said...

...cops didn't post flyers for the two girls who got mugged...

Yup, the 9th precinct is more alert to high profile crimes.

...this could happen to anyone and is f=d up...

Yup. That also sucks. And, over the years it's the crime that bothers me the most about living here. Too many people I know have been badly hurt in what appear to be--I dunno if this is right word or not--sport beatings. IIRC, at least one of these was reported in comments on this blog within the last year or so and the person who posted said they didn't report it. (They were jumped near 6th and B I think.) And two years ago, of course, there were numerous more or less random assaults in or near the park that attracted some attention but the 9th seemed to ignore them until Arihood, EVG, and the Villager made a stink about them.

Bad crime and bad policing. I know it happens elsewhere as well but it seems to happen more here than in many 'hoods, perhaps more than in some areas with higher crime rates. I wonder if the 9th keeps any stats on random assaults that are not robberies?

(Of all the government agencies that could use a community blog, I'd say the NYPD precinct houses rank pretty high. Sure, they have community meetings once in a while and, yes, there are a range of legal and civil rights issues inherent in such discussion but a crime blotter/stats/trends blog could be useful all around. The 9th would, of course, have to deal with things like bad cops in a fairly open way and be tolerant of some pretty harsh comments...ack, okay, ain't gonna happen.)

Anonymous said...

Hmmm - its 4:00 AM, bars emptying out of drunks, victim can't remember anything. Magically the media/"friends"/bloggers have the inside scoop on what occurrred. OK. I'll take a guess too. He may have been drinking and the "gang of thugs" reported in the tabloids may have been a couple of drunks responding to some perceived insult. Does anyone think that a roving gang of thugs would choose a location half a block from the 9th precinct house to attack a person "out of nowhere" and for no reason? I'm sorry for Gavin but sadly this is just another 4:00 AM shit show that is part of the nightlife scene.

esquared™ said...

did the cops posted fliers to find the rapist(s) of that fashion executive? oh, right, the po-lice were in her apt. 'consoling' her instead.

Anonymous said...

People beat people up for no reason all the time, (well the reasons are more psychological). Police do focus on crimes that get media attention to a greater degree.

Jeremy said...

Anon 12:14-You think a "gang of thugs" even cares that there is a precinct a half a block away? I'm sure 3/4's of the people on this blog didn't even know a precinct existed there.

Anonymous said...

Jeremy - are you suggesting he was attacked by a gang of thugs who read EV Grieve but are oblivious to the location of the 9th Precinct? Frightening thought.