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Beaten Times Union writer, DA to meet: Steve Barnes feels he was targeted; Soares seeking video footage
GUILDERLAND, Oct 20, 2008 (Albany Times Union - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Albany County District Attorney David Soares will meet with a Times Union reporter who was attacked outside a restaurant Friday night.
Steve Barnes, who reviews restaurants on the Table Hopping blog, and his friend, Joshua Carr, were beaten after they left Creo restaurant in Stuyvesant Plaza Friday night at about 9:30 p.m. Their assailants did not say anything or attempt to take any valuables as they punched the two men.
On Sunday, Soares said he would meet with Barnes and Carr early this week, noting that he often meets with Albany County crime victims. He said he has asked Guilderland police to share all possible evidence with his office, including video footage from stores and banks in the plaza. The plaza itself does not have video cameras installed in the parking lot.
Soares said it is too early in the investigation to determine if the attack was targeted, or random.
Guilderland police Sgt. Eric Batchelder said Sunday that the investigation was ongoing and there was not any new information.
But Barnes said a Creo employee told him that two men matching the description of the assailants were seen lingering in the parking lot outside the restaurant for hours before the attack. He said he now believes the attack was targeted at him because his assailant, a white male with shaved or bald head wearing a button-down shirt, clearly sought him out and focused the assault on him. Barnes also previously blogged he would be at the restaurant the night of the attack.
The assault ended when a passer-by intervened and approached in a car.
Barnes, who is openly gay, said he did not think the attack was a hate crime because the attackers did not say anything. Barnes and his friend both received minor injuries.
A detailed account of the attack can be found on Barnes' blog, "Table Hopping," at blogs.timesunion.com/tablehopping .
Scott Waldman can be reached at 454-5080 or by e-mail at swaldman@timesunion.com.
To see more of the Albany Times Union, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.timesunion.com. Copyright (c) 2008, Albany Times Union, N.Y.
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