Coroner Finds ODs in Robberies of NYC Gay Bar Patrons were Murders

Two fatalities in a string of suspected druggings and robberies have been ruled homicides by the chief medical examiner of New York City, reported NYC news outlet Gothamist.

"The medical examiner determined their deaths to have occurred during drug-facilitated thefts," Gothamist added.

Both victims had reportedly gone to bars in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York. As previously reported, one of the victims, 25-year-old Julio Ramirez, left the Ritz Bar and Lounge with three unidentified men on the evening of April 21 of last year. Ramirez was found unresponsive in a taxi a few hours later. Days after his death, someone using Ramirez's phone emptied his bank accounts.

Ramirez "died from the effects of a concoction that included fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, lidocaine and ethanol, the medical examiner's office said Friday" March 3, Gothamist detailed.

The other victim whose overdose death was ruled a homicide was John Umberger, who reportedly went to gay bar The Q NYC last May 28. After leaving the bar and being spotted in a car in the company of three men, Umberger "was found dead on June 1 in an apartment in an Upper East Side townhouse belonging to his employer, Donald Trump impeachment lawyer Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice," news outlet W42ST reported.

"His mobile phone and credit card had been stolen and more than $25,000 was missing from his bank accounts," W42ST added.

"The medical examiner said Umberger died from the effects of a similar concoction that did not include heroin," Gothamist added.

"Months after Ramirez and Umberger overdosed, the NYPD said in November they were investigating a series of robberies and assaults in Hell's Kitchen that could potentially be linked to their deaths," the report went on to say.

A number of men have stepped forward to describe how they were assaulted in a similar manner, but survived. They spoke out late last year, even as Manhattan Councilman Erik Bottcher urged the LGBTQ community to be "extra vigilant" when going out for a night on the town after the suspicious deaths.

Another man, the father of a New York University student, spoke to NBC News to report his son and a friend of his son were similarly drugged, allegedly by three men they left The Q with on April 8 of last year, less than two weeks before Ramirez's death. The father claimed that his son and the son's friend blacked out and his son's bank account was emptied using his phone.

In another incident, three men who visited The Eagle, a gay leather bar, claimed they were drugged and robbed in crimes with similarities to the overdose deaths.

Those alleged crimes took place last October and November.

Commenting on the cases, NYPD Captain Robert Gault told UK newspaper the Daily Mail, "What we think is happening with this scheme is [victims are] being lured away from the club, maybe [with enticements along the lines of] 'Hey, you wanna come with me? I got some good drugs,' or something like that."

"And then, once they get into a car to do whatever it is that they're going to do, at some point or another, they don't know what happened when they wake up."

The Mail added that the NYPD has made some progress with its investigation, reporting that what "Gauld's team has been able to do is connect each case based on license plates, vehicles and a phone number connected to the suspects."