May 16, 2003
By RONALD SMOTHERS
NEWARK, May 15 - The Newark police arrested a 29-year-old man today
in the stabbing death early Sunday morning of a 15-year-old girl
who, along with four friends, had rebuffed his advances and struggled
with him at a bus stop.
The man, Richard McCullough, of Newark, went to the Essex County
prosecutor's office with his lawyer to turn himself in, according
to Detective Todd McClendon, a spokesman for the Newark Police Department.
He was arrested and charged with murder, weapons possession and
bias intimidation, Detective McClendon said.
The police here have treated the stabbing of the girl, Sakia Gunn,
of Newark, as a bias crime based on what witnesses told them had
happened. At 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, the witnesses said, two men accosted
the girls as they returned from a party in Manhattan and were waiting
for a bus at a local bus stop and one of the girls told the men
that they were gay. Under state law, there are stiffer penalties
for someone convicted of a felony that grew out of racial or sexual
bias.
As the arrest was being made, about 300 friends, relatives and classmates
of Ms. Gunn, a sophomore at West Side High School, rallied on the
steps of City Hall here along with representatives from gay and
lesbian groups and local activist organizations.
They were protesting a range of issues, from the absence of police
officers on the corner where the stabbing took place to what they
termed the hostile atmosphere in the city for most gay young people.
It was the second rally prompted by Ms. Gunn's death.
Mayor Sharpe James took the unusual step of calling a news conference
with city police officials to announce that they had arrested Mr.
McCullough, whom they had first identified as a suspect two days
ago.
