Teen Arrested in Murder of Gay Man Beaten to Death in the Bronx: UPDATE

An 18-year-old has been arrested in the death of Juan Fresnada, 61, who defended his boyfriend in a vicious Christmas Eve robbery in the Bronx and who subsequently died.

According to Channel 7 Eye Witness News, ” 18-year-old Abu Conteh is facing murder and gang assault charges. Police said Fresnada and a 29-year-old friend were walking along Third Avenue when several muggers approached them and demanded their property. When the two refused, they were attacked. Authorities say the suspects took a dollar from them and fled westbound on East 164th Street. Surveillance video released by police shows a man grabbing another man’s shirt and swinging him to the ground, then hitting him. Clips also show two other men joining the attacker, one of them grasping a trash can, as the beaten man starts to stand up.”

According to The Daily News, “Fresnada was leaving a McDonald’s on Third Ave. in the Bronx with his partner Byron Caceres, 29, just before 1:30 a.m. Tuesday when a man came up to them and demanded their money, Caceres told the Daily News. The couple went into a nearby deli to get away from the perp — but he followed them into the store and continued to try to rob them. Fresnada, who goes by the nickname of Cuba because he is Cuban, immigrated to New York with the Marielitos in 1980. Caceres came to New York from Honduras in 2007, and the couple met through a program for low-income gay men in 2015. They’ve been inseparable since.”

Above: Juan Fresnada on Christmas Day.

Now Gay City News has reported that Fresnada has died. “Fresnada was transported to Lincoln Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries on December 27 at 2 a.m. after he suffered from swelling in his brain. Police are now classifying the case as a homicide. The thieves, whom police described as five Black males ranging in age from late teens to early 20s, wound up taking just $1 from the couple before fleeing westbound on East 165th Street. No arrests have been made and police are still seeking to learn the identities of the five attackers. An NYPD spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether the case is being investigated as a hate crime. Caceres told the Daily News he did not hear the attackers using homophobic slurs and did not believe the attack was a hate crime. It is not clear whether the perpetrators knew the two men were partners.”

The police are looking for the men in the vide below (and pictured above).