Julio Ramirez, 25, and John Umberger, 33, were drugged and robbed while leaving gay bars last year
\nTwo men who were fatally drugged in New York City while leaving gay bars last year and whose bank accounts had been drained were both homicide victims, according to the local chief medical examiner\u2019s office.
\nThe medical examiner said Friday that the deaths of social worker Julio Ramirez, 25, and political consultant John Umberger, 33, were caused by a \u201cdrug-facilitated theft\u201d, NBC News reported.
\nFriday\u2019s announcement came amid a New York police investigation into a series of robberies and assaults tied to clubs and bars in Hell\u2019s Kitchen, a neighborhood in the city known for its nightlife.
\nRamirez was discovered dead in a taxi last April after surveillance cameras caught him leaving a venue and entering a taxi with three other men at about 3.15am. According to NBC New York, Ramirez was alone in the backseat at 4.10am when the driver approached a police officer to report that Ramirez was unresponsive.
\nHe was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital less than an hour later.
\nRamirez\u2019s family said that his phone had been taken and its password changed, and that $20,000 was stolen from his bank accounts.
\nIn Friday\u2019s announcement, the medical examiner said that Ramirez\u2019s death was caused by \u201cacute intoxication by the combined effects of fentanyl, p-fluorofentanyl, heroin, cocaine, lidocaine and ethanol\u201d.
\nUmberger was visiting the city a few weeks later, in late May, when he died with the same combination of drugs in his system, according to the medical examiner. His body was discovered inside his boss\u2019s East Side townhouse, four days after he left a nightclub in Hell\u2019s Kitchen, the local news outlet WPIX reported.
\nAccording to his mother, surveillance footage showed him in between two men while leaving the nightclub and entering a car. Umberger also had about $20,000 transferred out of his bank accounts and his credits cards had been maxed out, his mother added.
\nNew York city councilmember Erik Bottcher, who represents Hell\u2019s Kitchen, had urged the Manhattan district attorney to swiftly charge those responsible for the deaths of Ramirez and Umberger.
\n\u201cWe demand justice for the people who murdered Julio Ramirez and John Umberger,\u201d Bottcher said in a text message reviewed by NBC.
\nHe added: \u201cAs we approach the one-year anniversary of their murders, the pain experienced by their families, friends and our entire community has only been exacerbated by the fact that their killers have not been brought to justice.\u201d
\nA spokesperson from the district attorney\u2019s office told NBC that an investigation centering on Ramirez, Umberger and others who died similarly is \u201congoing\u201d.<\/p>\n
Theguardian<\/p>\n
Tags\uff1adrugs, law and order<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Julio Ramirez, 25, and John Umberger, 33, were drugged and robbed while leaving gay bars last year Two men who were fatally drugged in New York City while leaving gay bars last year and whose bank accounts had been drained were both homicide victims, according to the local chief medical examiner\u2019s office. The medical examiner said Friday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6848,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[1402,1186,1426],"class_list":["post-6847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-men","tag-two","tag-were"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6849,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6847\/revisions\/6849"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}