Gavin Collins, Joshua Hunter, and Handy Colindrez – Photo: Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.
Three men were arrested, and two were charged with first-degree murder, in the July 8 shooting death of a Winchester, Va., man whose body was found along the side of a roadway in Sterling.
The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office announced it had arrested Gavin Collins, 21, of Sterling, and Joshua Hunter, 22, of Woodbridge, in the death investigation of Jose Escobar Menendez.
They were charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit robbery, and two counts of using a firearm while in the commission of a felony, according to a press release.
Collins also faces charges of possession of Schedule I narcotic, felon in possession of a firearm, possession of a firearm while in possession of a Schedule I narcotic, and outstanding arrest warrant from Loudoun County, and a probation violation in Prince William County.
According to the sheriff’s office, Menendez had agreed to meet Collins in the area of Emerald Point Terrace in Sterling during the early morning hours of July 8. But both Collins and Hunter showed up.
During the course of their encounter, police allege that Collins and Hunter attempted to rob Menendez, shooting him fatally. The two then fled the scene, stealing Menendez’s car as well.
During the course of the investigation, Menendez’s vehicle was discovered in Prince William County, and a third man, Handry Colindrez, 24, was arrested and charged with grand larceny for allegedly buying the car from Collins and Hunter, reports Loudoun Now. All three suspects are being held at the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center without bond.
According to Instinct magazine, Hunter allegedly worked as an escort through the website Rent.Men for the past two years. A former customer provided a copy of Hunter’s page to a local media outlet. On the site, Hunter used the name “Anthony Adams,” and claimed that he was “a very open person with no hang ups and open to all genders.”
That former customer expressed surprise that Hunter was connected to Menendez’s death.
The investigation remains active, and additional charges may be brought at a future time. Thus far, though, the sheriff’s office is not treating the investigation like a hate crime, although one of Menendez’s friends told local media that she believes the crime was motivated by anti-gay bias.
Anybody who may have additional information in the case is asked to contact Detective M. Grimsley at the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office at (703) 777-1021.
Masked men vandalized and robbed, at gunpoint, the legendary San Francisco gay nightclub Oasis.
The incident occurred on July 18 around 5 a.m., while the club's cleaning crew was working. Video from surveillance cameras shows four men in ski masks ripping "the front main door of the club off with crow bars," according to owner D'Arcy Drollinger.
The three cleaners were reportedly held down as the men took their phones and wallets. The names of the victims are not being released to protect their identities.
According to Drollinger, the robbers ransacked the club's office, broke Internet equipment, and raided the bar's inventory in the basement, where they drank tequila and Red Bull before leaving.
On May 30, Cobalt Sovereign, a student at Hopkins High School in Minnetonka, entered the boys' bathroom and used one of the stalls. But another student looked over the stall and began harassing her, calling her anti-LGBTQ slurs while hurling insults at her.
Sovereign left the restroom, only to be trailed down the hall by the student and two others.
She got up the coverage to confront them, but when she turned to verbally confront her harasser, he punched her in the mouth.
"He had no reason to have anything against me," the 17-year-old told Minneapolis NBC affiliate KARE. "I've never talked to him, never done anything negative to him. And I was insulted and then eventually hit in the jaw.
On a recent hazy Saturday summer morning, the husband and I set out for D.C.'s Wine Country. I was on assignment, dispatched to day-drink with journalistic integrity as a guest with Vineyard Voyages, a gay owned-and-operated winery tour company founded in May 2024 by wine enthusiast and educator Christian Hoeffel.
Hoeffel also serves as host and guide on each tour, two per weekend. "I tell everybody on my tours, I didn't grow up thinking I'd own a wine tour company," says the Indiana native, who discovered his love for wine tourism during his travels. Now, he's sipped wines of the world on six continents.
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