'HATE' KILLED NYU KID
By LARRY CELONA, ERIKA MARTINEZ and CYNTHIA R. FAGEN
April 6, 2006 -- The NYPD hate-crimes unit is probing a report that a white NYU student killed by a car in Harlem was fleeing a gang of black teenagers screaming "Get whitey!" sources said yesterday.
If the report proves true, the violence could turn out to be an eerie replay in reverse of the infamous 1986 Howard Beach murder, where a black man was chased into traffic and killed by a group of white bigots.
The 20-year-old student, John Broderick Hehman, died yesterday, six days after the attack.
The sources said Hehman might have been targeted as a soft mark for robbers after the teenage gang spotted the caring urban-studies major handing pocket change to a wheelchair- bound man near the corner of 125th Street and Park Avenue Saturday night.
The gang of youths, some of them as young as 11, had been smoking pot inside a nearby Popeye's fast-food eatery at 8:30 p.m. when they spotted Hehman walking by and then stopping to help the handicapped man.
An anonymous caller later tipped the CrimeStoppers hot line that a group of youths screamed, "Get Whitey!" and ran toward him.
Witnesses said Hehman fled into traffic against the light and was hit by a Mercedes-Benz traveling east on 125th Street.
The 38-year-old driver remained at the scene and was not charged.
"When we heard the crash, we thought it was two cars - it was such a loud noise," said a witness.
"I couldn't believe it was a person," he said.
Hehman, known as "J.B.," had been in a coma since he was struck.
He died of massive head trauma at Harlem Hospital.
His sister, Marisa, said he had been walking to meet a friend when he was attacked.
His father, Manhattan investment banker Thomas Hehman, lives on the Upper East Side.
On a student Web site, Hehman joked his off-campus interests included "doing laundry."
Meanwhile, cops yesterday fanned out around the area where the attack occurred looking for witnesses and putting up fliers.
In the notorious Howard Beach case, John Lester, 17, confronted a group of three black men whose car had broken down in the predominately white Queens neighborhood.
Lester, shouting, "Kill the n-----s," chased one of the black men, Michael Griffith, onto the Belt Parkway where he was struck and killed by a car.
larry.celona@nypost.com
Student run over in chase dies
A New York University junior died yesterday of injuries suffered after he was chased into the path of a car in Harlem on Saturday, police said.
Broderick Hehman, 20, was hit about 8:35 p.m. near 125th St. and Park Ave.
A police source said he was the victim of a robbery attempt before he ran into the street.
The driver of the car stayed on the scene and wasn't charged. Police are still looking for at least one person who witnesses told cops was running behind Hehman.
The student, who majored in metropolitan studies, had been in critical condition at Harlem Hospital since he was hit.
A police source said relatives made the heartrending decision early yesterday to take him off life support.
"It's over," his distraught sister said. "He's dead."
Robert F. Moore
How awful! May God bless Broderick Hehman and comfort his family.
FWIW, the way the media had consistently described Terri as comatose has caused me to never believe what they say again in regards to many medical terms including (but not limited to) coma, brain-dead, PVS, heart attack, cardiac arrest, etc., etc.