Suspects in Chelsea Slay Tied to Earlier Thefts

The pack of thugs who mugged and fatally beat a New Jersey man outside a Chelsea nightclub had robbed before, police sources said yesterday.

“Get that white m — — — — — r!” one of the attackers shouted before three of them surrounded Thomas Whitney Jr., 24, and threw the first punch, according to two women who saw the beating.

Najib Noor, 19, punched Whitney in the head while Daryush Omar, 20, and Walliullah Hashimi, 22, kicked him as he lay bleeding on W. 19th St., not far from the Spy Club, where Whitney had been partying, prosecutors said.

{snip}

Police said they didn’t charge the three with a hate crime because the comment was seen as a way to identify a drunken mark, rather than a racial slur, police sources said. Omar and Noor are natives of Pakistan and Hashimi of Afghanistan.

{snip}