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When the three left the restaurant at 12:40 a.m., they were accosted by eleven white teenagers -- led, say police, by Lester, who brandished a baseball bat, Kern, who had a tree limb, and Ladone. The whites first taunted the blacks and then began beating them. Grimes was hit once before he managed to escape. Griffith and Sandiford tried to get away, but the teenagers caught up with them along a fence that bordered the Shore Parkway and continued their assault. Sandiford feigned unconsciousness. Griffith, severely beaten, dove through a 3-ft. hole in the fence and staggered onto the parkway. He was struck and killed by an automobile driven by Dominick Blum, 24, of Brooklyn, a court officer and the son of a policeman.
Two days later Lester, Ladone and Kern were arrested and charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and assault. Lester, a slight, baby-faced junior at John Adams High School, who immigrated to the U.S. with his family from England four years ago, had one previous arrest, for possession of a loaded .32-cal. handgun. The family of the murdered man, Michael Griffith, had also immigrated to New York, having come from Trinidad 18 years ago. According to a medical examiner's report, the dead man had a bullet in his chest, the result of a dispute. Griffith never pressed charges.
Timothy Mitchell, pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Queens, declared that Howard Beach is representative "of the deep-seated enclave mentality of the Borough of Queens." Noting that Mafia Boss John Gotti lives in Howard Beach, Mitchell suggested that Gotti's presence, as well as that of other Mob leaders, contributes greatly to a "macho Mafia mentality" on the part of local young people.
In the neighborhood, many residents seemed unrepentant. Youngsters from Howard Beach, claimed Joe Funaro, a longtime resident, are "abused by blacks" in other parts of the city. "They know when they go out there, they don't feel safe." At the local John Adams High School, where whites and nonwhites are almost equally represented, Lester has become a folk hero to some of the white students. But to the friends and relatives of Michael Griffith who jammed a funeral service for him in Bedford-Stuyvesant last Friday, Lester is a symbol of society gone awry. "We wonder why these events are happening," said the Rev. Robert Seay in his eulogy. "The great ((civil rights)) movement was to have ended all this. But society admits and encourages violence and bigotry. When teenagers commit a crime like this, the blame is not only on them, but on their parents and on society."