Two Men Face Hate Crime Charges For Attack At MBTA South Station
BOSTON (CBS) - Two men are facing hate crime charges for allegedly attacking someone in the MBTA South Station Commuter Rail lobby area.
Police say the victim was waiting for a train around 5:40 a.m. this past Saturday when Colin Hayes, 21, of Quincy and Derek Ruiz, 28, of Brockton began taunting him with homophobic slurs without provocation.
The victim eventually asked the men to leave him alone. About five minutes later, police say Hayes and Ruiz returned and began punching him in the face.
He wound up in the hospital with a broken nose, and his cell phone was also stolen.
In an effort to find the suspects, Transit police investigators called the victim's phone and spoke to a man who said he buys and sells cell phones on Craigslist, and that's how he got the phone. Police traced that sale back to another man, who said he bought the phone from a person named Derek.
That man gave police a phone number that belonged to Ruiz.
Police matched photos from Ruiz's Facebook account to surveillance images from South Station before tracking him down at Blue Inc., where he was working in the restaurant's kitchen.
Officers say he acknowledged that he and Hayes had been involved in an altercation with the victim.
Hayes and Ruiz are charged with Unarmed Robbery, Aggravated Assault & Battery and Civil Rights Violations with Injuries.
Both are being held on $15,000 bail.
