Jenna: Good evening and welcome to MetroFocus.

Drugged, robbed and left for dead after a night out in New York City, authorities say this tragic series of events led to the murders of two men who were at gate nightclubs last year, traumatizing the community.

Over a dozen other people reported being targeted and in the past few weeks, five men were indicted in connection with the case.

The final suspect was arrested in mid April.

The group is accused of befriending their victims, plying them with dangerous drugs, and stealing thousands of dollars from their bank accounts.

Authorities say the alleged crimes did not appear to specifically target gay men.

But this happened around Hells kitchen, Manhattan neighborhood, with many LGBTQIA+ residents.

A political consultant was one of the victims who lost his life.

Hi mother, -- his mother, Linda Clary is here tonight.

She conducted her own investigation and has since started a foundation to carry his legacy encouraging other victims to come forward.

Thank you so much for joining us on MetroFocus.

>> Thank you for having me on and caring about the story.

Jenna: Absolutely.

First, I want to get your take.

Especially as a mother, what was it like when you first heard about what happened to your son?

>> Well, it was a series of what happened, meaning when I was first called, John was missing.

We were all trying to find him and when I was called to be told that they had found him and John was dead, it was horrific, it was presented to me as if John sat on a bed and fell over and was tying his shoe and died.

That seemed odd.

As the conversations with the detectives in the 19th precinct continued, we kept asking, where is his phone.

There were all things that happened with his phone.

Even being on Facebook and Instagram and having read text messages even though he never responded.

The fact that he did not have his phone on him, we quickly learned the credit card 10 maxed out, so the police initially presented to us that oh, John must've gone out to a club, run into some bad people and they robbed him, and he got drugs and was so depressed he came home and took them that did not measure up with how John would've handled that situation.

So, it has been an unraveling.

As we did our own detective work retracing his steps, established certain things, seven of us came to New York, met with the detective in the 19th precinct.

After having to wait two and half hours and being put in the complaint room he had a different perspective after we lined everything out and pointed out some things including the fact that John never got in the last cab ride he ordered.

That help give them -- helped give them a different perspective, homicide detective was assigned to a different case.

It unfolded as we have gone along.

Jenna: Once a homicide detective was assigned to the case, give me your take on what seems like the recent developments.

>> Well, I am very thankful that these arrests have been made.

The men have been arraigned, and they are right now, in jail and off the streets.

They cannot hurt anybody else.

Given the evidence that is in the indictment, you will see the most critical piece of evidence is a -- this is very difficult to say -- there is a video recording of my son dying, and the gentleman reporting it, and snickering in the background.

All of them have prior criminal records.

I believe the streets of New York are much safer.

People are safer with these people not being out amongst the general population.

I am so grateful because detective Randy Rose and the other detectives like Joe Cowan and Scott Williams who worked with him on the case have made such a difference.

Detective Rose was the one who started ticking -- digging and realized after going through the evidence, the same people were responsive for -- responsible for Julio Ramirez's death.

That was critical.

And Rose's unwillingness to give up.

He is a very good detective, not only is he good at his job, but he is committed, and he cares about victims, and doing his job.

Jenna: This has not been determined to be hate crime.

Yet, a lot of that has the do with the language in the weight hate crime is determined -- the way hate crime's are determined.

This has left a lot of people, particularly in the LGBTQIA+ community legitimately shook.

>> They should be.

They were the targets.

These men, specifically, sot targets in the gay -- sought out targets in the gay community.

They saw them as being lucrative targets and vulnerable, and they prayed upon them.

That, to me, is why it feels like a hate hate crime, even though it does not meet the legal definition of a hate crime.

It is something everyone should be concerned about, and work towards being more aware and careful, and protective of one another.

Jenna: Of course.

Initially, the reports were that this was driven by simple greed.

That is why people are being targeted.

It does seem, I guess, may be questionable that both victims were gay men and this was around Hells kitchen.

>> Yes.

I am confident there are other victims that have not come forward.

My hope is that other victims who did not come forward for a variety of reasons will feel empowered to come forward.

Those are obviously living victims.

So, we have the living victims, and we have the victims who died, like Julio and my son.

It is a concern.

I believe there are more cases out there.

Even if they did come forward, perhaps they have not been categorized.

This would be something I would say to NYPD, you have a $6 billion budget.

I know you are stretched.

But surely, especially with the additional money the mayor is putting forth, there should be some collaborative efforts from a data perspective to know what is going on in every precinct, and to be able to track to similar cases -- track similar cases.

This has been going on for some time in the city, it seems, based on the data.

Jenna: Let me ask you this.

We know that, unfortunately, your son is no longer with us.

The way I described him in the intro was as a political consultant.

What a news story describes is such a fraction of the individual.

Can you tell us about your son?

>> Oh, yes.

John was a larger-than-life character.

I received last week a two-page letter from his doctor, general practitioner, that only saw him four times.

When he saw the article in the Washington Post, just wanted to write me and say, I'm so sorry for your loss, and talk about how he remembered John and how he lit up his office when he came in, and was so kind.

John was described in one article, in the Washington Post, in a city that seeks to exclude people, John never wrote to anyone off, and never excluded anyone.

John had a variety of friends.

I've never seen someone have so many best friends, a variety of interests.

John was someone who knew a lot about a lot of people -- things.

We discovered he was collecting these antique side rules.

They kept coming in, even once he passed, he had ordered on eBay.

He was also a Gyro kinesis instructor.

He took a personal interest.

He believed in picking up the phone or seeing someone in person, rather than sending a text.

You know, he brought joy.

He could get the impossible done.

As his boss said, unfortunately, it is going to take three people to replace John in his role.

Jenna: That is an incredibly heartbreaking and difficult situation, you have found purpose, your foundation.

Can you tell us about that?

>> I am very proud to say there are -- or there is an executive board of seven, but there are 50 board members.

So many of John's friends have wanted to be involved.

We're focused on carrying on John's legacy in making a difference in the lives of individuals, but specifically in five areas, safety, wellness, innovation, support, and scholarship.

With what is going on, the focus has been safety, with spreading the word, you cannot let one another go out alone.

You think you are safe, but you really -- there are safety in numbers.

Stick together.

You may -- we have all done it, I have done it and I am much older.

But you cannot go home with someone in a group of people you meet in a bar that you've never met before.

We live in a crazy world right now.

It is just not safe.

Do go back to old school of not doing the face ID on your phone.

As someone said, if someone is attacking you, or drugging you, and getting your phone, and then realizes they cannot get into it, you don't want to get to that point.

Take these other safety measures.

Especially in line with this conversation, when we look at support, there are three specific areas of support in that John was a product of a surprise pregnancy for me.

I was blessed to have parents who stepped in, and saw me through it, and who could help financially and otherwise.

We want to support a young woman in a crisis, who wants to keep her child.

Provide, support stability in all areas for her to make that choice.

Then, support for anyone who was afraid to come out and be who they are.

It -- they don't have family that will support them.

We want to support them.

We are looking to partner with other organizations to do that.

That is a really important thing to me.

I'm thankful John was who he was.

He was openly gay.

John was so talented, because he was gay.

Because, no straight man could have done what John did.

He just had so much going on.

So it was a blessing.

I want other people to understand that about themselves.

Then, when we look at the people involved in John's death, who I believe killed my son, the system failed to them.

They came out of the project, they have turned to a life of crime.

We want to help from an educational perspective in providing educational programs and opportunities for people to not make the choices these other people did.

Those are significant areas.

You can find out more at jacu foundation.org.

Jenna: Linda Clary, I want to thank you so much, for all of the reasons you laid out in the foundation that you started and the beautiful way you're carrying on your sons legacy.

Thank you so much for joining us on MetroFocus.

>> Thank you.

It would be an honor to be back anytime.

Thank you for including me.

Jenna: Absolutely.

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