Hawkins had gone to Bensonhurst that night with three friends to inquire about a used 1982 Pontiac automobile that was for sale. The group's attackers had been lying in wait for either African-American or Latino youths they believed had raped a neighborhood girl. Hawkins and his friends walked onto the ambushers' block unaware of the local situation. After the murder of Mr. Hawkins, police said that he was not in any way involved with the neighborhood girl whose honor the killers felt they were protecting.[1]
Hawkins' death was the third killing of a black man by white mobs in New York City during the 1980s; the other two victims were Willie Turks, who was killed on June 22, 1982 in Brooklyn, and Michael Griffith, who was killed in Queens on December 20, 1986. The incident uncorked a torrent of racial tension in New York City in the ensuing days and weeks, culminating in a protest march through the neighborhood led by the Reverend Al Sharpton.