Blaze Bernstein Suspect Used Anti-Gay Slur — Fueling Hate Crime Suspicion
Blaze Bernstein Image by facebook
By Dave Goldiner January 17, 2018
The accused killer of Blaze Bernstein reportedly used a common anti-gay slur about the slain college student in an interrogation with police.
Samuel Woodward, 20, who was charged with murder at an arraignment Wednesday, used the ‘f-word’ when discussing his meeting with Bernstein on the night he disappeared, the Orange County Register reported.
The heartbroken parents of Blaze Bernstein say his brutal murder should be investigated as an anti-gay hate crime.
Gideon Bernstein and Jeanne Pepper said they were proud of their son and said he had “nothing to hide,” an apparent reference to his being gay, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“Our son was a beautiful gentle soul who we loved more than anything,” they said. “We were proud of everything he did and who he was. He had nothing to hide. We are in solidarity with our son and the LGBTQ community.”
Published reports Monday said Blaze Bernstein was stabbed more than 20 times in an apparent rage killing.
Woodward, a high-school classmate of Bernstein, claimed to police that Bernstein kissed him on Jan. 3, the night he disappeared. Bernstein’s body was found in a shallow grave a few days later.
“We are saddened to hear, on the day we laid our son to rest, that gruesome details of the cause of his death were published,” Gideon Bernstein and Jeanne Pepper Bernstein wrote.
Noting that the probe was continuing, they suggested they still didn’t know if Bernstein was killed because of his sexual orientation or some other reason.
“If it is determined that this was a hate crime, we will cry not only for our son, but for LGBTQ people everywhere that live in fear or who have been victims of [a] hate crime,” they wrote.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
