New York

Sharpton leads protest where black man beaten

The Rev. Al Sharpton led a protest Monday to decry last week’s baseball bat attack on a black man. The rally came nearly 19 years after Sharpton visited the same area to protest a deadly racial attack.

Police have arrested a 19-year-old man in the latest incident that left the 22-year-old victim with multiple skull fractures. An alleged accomplice also was arrested. Both men, who are white, have been charged with robbery and assault as a hate crime.

The attack happened just blocks from where three black men were beaten in 1986 by a white mob after the victims’ car broke down. One of the men, 23-year-old Michael Griffith, was killed by a car as he fled. A week afterward, a protest march was marred by jeers and insults from the mostly white neighborhood.

Police said Glenn Moore and two other black men were walking in Howard Beach early Wednesday when they were attacked by three men. One of Moore’s friends said he intended to steal a car, but Moore was not aware of the plan, officials said.

A lawyer for accused attacker Nicholas Minucci said Moore provoked the violence by holding a screwdriver to Minucci’s neck. Police and prosecutors said that account was not credible.

MIAMI

Tropical depression heads toward Louisiana

A tropical storm watch was issued Monday along the entire Louisiana coast as a tropical depression gained strength in the Gulf of Mexico.

The watch was issued for about 280 miles along the Louisiana coast from the mouth of the Mississippi River to Sabine Pass, Texas. A watch means tropical storm conditions are possible within 36 hours.

The depression had top sustained winds of 35 mph, and could strengthen into a tropical storm with top sustained winds of at least 39 mph, forecasters said.

Early Monday, the system made landfall over the Yucatan Peninsula and it could bring another 2 to 4 inches of rain over the peninsula’s northern tip over the next day, forecasters said. The depression could bring a total of 10 inches of rain in some areas.

This is the third tropical depression of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1 and ends Nov. 30. The next tropical storm would be named Cindy.