Throwback Thursday

“On the early morning of December 20, 1986, a white mob attacked three stranded African Americans in Howard Beach, an insular predominately white community in the borough of Queens.  

On that night, four African American men, Cedric Sandiford, 36, Timothy Grimes, 20, Michael Griffith, 23, and Curtis Sylvester, 20, were traveling in a 1976 Buick from their Brooklyn neighborhood to Queens to collect Griffith’s paycheck. When the Buick stalled on Cross Bay Boulevard, near Howard Beach, Griffith, Sandiford, and Grimes walked to Howard Beach to locate a pay phone.

The three entered Howard Beach at midnight and were immediately confronted by a small group of white pedestrians, who yelled racial slurs and told them to get out of their neighborhood. However, by then hungry and tired, the men decided to dine and rest at the New Park Pizzeria on Cross Bay Boulevard.

When Sandiford, Grimes, and Griffith left the restaurant at 12:40 a.m., a mob of twelve white youth awaited them with baseball bats, tire irons, and tree limbs.  

The gang, led by Jon Lester, 17, included Salvatore DeSimone, 19, William Bollander, 17, James Povinelli, 16, Michael Pirone, 17, John Saggese, 19, Jason Ladone, 16, Thomas Gucciardo, 17, Harry Bunocore, 18, Scott Kern, 18, Thomas Farino, 16, and Robert Riley, 19.

The mob attacked Griffith and Sandiford.  Grimes, who drew a knife on the angry mob, escaped with minor injuries.  

Sandiford begged, “God, don’t kill us” before Lester knocked him down with a baseball bat.  With the mob in hot pursuit, the severely beaten Griffith ran the nearby Belt Parkway where he jumped through a small hole in a fence adjacent to the highway.  

As he staggered across the busy six-lane expressway, trying to escape his attackers, he was hit and instantly killed by a car driven by Dominic Blum, a court officer and son of a New York police officer.”

Words by Dwayne Mack photo by Sylvia Plachy