By:Jason Scheer
Members of a gang, including one Baldwin man, have been charged with pummeling a 15-year-old with a bat and taking his money.
According to police, Matthew Lewis, 18, of Baldwin was arrested on Feb. 27, along with Frank C. Montalbano III, 17, of North Merrick and Peter Chochikas, 17, of Wantagh. A 15-year-old juvenile from Merrick was also arrested in connection with the crime.
The four individuals, according to police, are members of a gang calling itself the Bellmore Punx and Skinz, or BPS.
According to detectives, the four defendants, along with between two and four other men, attacked a 15-year-old boy who was walking on Park Avenue in Wantagh on Feb. 26. The group jumped out in front of him from a trail along Park Avenue and the Wantagh Parkway overpass, according to police. The suspects, who all wore hooded sweatshirts and white bandannas, beat the victim in the face and took his wallet, which contained $150 in cash, police said. The victim was transported to Long Island Jewish Hospital in North New Hyde Park for treatment of facial injuries.
All of the defendants were charged with first-degree robbery, second-degree assault and fourth-degree possession of a dangerous weapon.
Last week, members of the gang allegedly spray-painted Nazi swastikas on a pump house wall in the Twin Lakes Preserve in Wantagh. According to police, suspects tagged the area "Bellmore Punx and Skinz territory." The vandals also wrote that homosexuals should be killed and African-Americans should "go home."
Members of the group had previously spray-painted anti-Semitic and racial slurs at Calhoun, Mepham, Wantagh and McArthur high schools and the Jonas E. Salk School in Levittown over winter recess, according to police.
Lewis and Chochikas were charged with third-degree criminal mischief in connection with the defacement of Wantagh High School.
The bat-brandishing incident is still under investigation, as police are seeking the other people involved. It evoked memories of a string of bat attacks on the South Shore this year. Since Jan. 1, eight similar incidents have occurred in five Long Island communities, including Baldwin, East Meadow, Uniondale, Rockville Centre and Garden City.
Nassau County police officer Thomas Blanchaid said that members of BPS are not connected with the other attacks, and that the most recent incident might have been a copy-cat crime. "Any time you get a group saying they use a bat, another guy from another group will probably think it's a good idea," Blanchaid said. "Especially when you get a [guy with an] IQ that's no higher than a tossed salad."
Comments about this story? JScheer@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 282.
