NEW YORK.- Six members of a gang who preyed on gay men in Hell’s Kitchen nightclubs were charged by the roofie murders of John Umberger y Julio Ramirez last year.
Arrest warrants were issued for three of the suspects in the first degree murders last Friday afternoon; the six men have been charged with grand theft and first degree robberyas well as conspiracy to drug and rob at least a dozen victims.
Umberger, 33, and Ramírez, 25, died of “acute intoxication” by a mixture of fentanyl, cocaine, ethanol and other drugs, the city medical examiner discovered on March 3.
Both men were victims of homicides caused by “drug-facilitated robberies”after leaving the gay nightclubs Q NYC y Ritz Bar and Loungereports the NY Post.
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The victims were intoxicated with a strong mixture of drugs
Umberger’s mother, Linda Clary, paid tribute to the NYPD detective, Randy Rose, for solving the case after he connected the deaths of his son and Ramírez. Rose realized that a gang was operating in Hell’s Kitchen’s gay clubs, drugging the victims and using cash apps on their phones to steal tens of thousands of dollars from their bank accounts.
Umberger, a political consultant from Washington, DC, disappeared on Saturday, May 28, 2022, after a night out at Q NYC, a gay nightclub located at 795 Eighth Ave, while visiting New York for work.
His credit card was used around 3:00 am at the club and he was last seen an hour later on a surveillance camera with three unidentified men in a car outside the Upper East Side house where he was staying.
his body was found four days later, on June 1, in a fifth-floor apartment of a row house at 34 E. 61st St., owned by the American Center for Law and Justice of the conservative lawyer Jay Sekulowwhere Umberger was director of diplomacy and political programs.
His belongings, money and credit cards were stolen
His cell phone and credit cards were missing. More than $25,000 had been transferred from their accounts through cash apps on their phone, such as Venmo y PayPal.
Five weeks earlier, on Thursday, April 21, under similar circumstances, Brooklyn social worker Julio Ramírez, 25, was found dead in the back of a taxi on the Lower East Side around 4:00 in the morning.
An hour earlier he had been caught on security camera with three unidentified men leaving the Ritz Bar and Lounge, a gay club on West 46th Street, two blocks from Q NYC.
Like Umberger, Ramirez’s phone and wallet were missing, and around $20,000 worth of his bank accounts had been drained through apps like Venmo y cell; later, her credit cards ran out on expensive dinners and spa services.
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