Hearing impaired men stabbed in Fla. club after sign language mistaken for gang signs

By: Camille Mann
Topics: Daily Blotter

(Credit: WFOR)

(CBS/WFOR) HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Sean Shuland and Alfred Stewart, both hearing impaired, were stabbed early Saturday morning after fellow club-goer Barbara Lee mistook their sign language for gang signs, police said.

Shuland, 33, and Stewart, 31, were exchanging signs while inside a South Florida nightclub. But Lee misinterpreted the sign language as gang signs, and began "throwing" them back to the two men, police say, according to CBS station WFOR.

The men signaled for Lee to leave, but the 45-year-old woman came back to the club, this time with Marco Ibanez, 18, and another juvenile, reports the station.

Police say just before 5 a.m. a fight ensued, ending with the two hearing impaired men being rushed to the hospital with stab wounds, the station reports.

Cristiansen Matthew, the club's security guard, was cut when Lee allegedly broke a champagne bottle and sliced his hand and head open with the sharp end, police stated in the arrest report.

Both Lee and Ibanez have been charged with aggravated battery. A juvenile suspect was also detained by police, the station reports.

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by lordgoogoo May 4, 2011 12:14 PM EDT: What ????; Reply to this comment


by Danielmountain May 3, 2011 10:16 PM EDT: i remember going to a bar and consistently seeing a hispanic woman, aged in her mid-30s, drinking and constantly challenging other people in order to get them to react to her.

one time a guy talked back to her and she told him he better leave because she's calling "all my homies right now" (or something like that).

i looked at the bartender and he looked back at me, quietly, as if he was saying 'not much i can do about her, sorry.'

never liked most gang members. but i've known some who weren't bad individuals.; Reply to this comment

by Kestrelnightworld May 3, 2011 10:47 AM EDT

I am a profound deaf woman and have been for 25 years. I will have to say this. I am very appalled and dumbfounded at how STUPID people can be nowadays when it comes to deaf people and their culture. Gang signs is NOT even close to being compared to ASL (American Sign Language) and I am very ******* sure that you don't communicate constantly with gang signs.
This is not the first time a deaf person gets injured or killed because of the 'misunderstanding' and it certainly won't be last. I am sick and tired of hearing people doing this to deaf people. We are just human beings and we can do everything a hearing person could do except hear. Is that so hard for people to understand?

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by barbaram99 May 5, 2011 1:06 AM EDT: Dear Deaf lady,
I am a legally blind person with C/P. I also cant hear certain sounds. I am appalled as well. This really happen on the 2 deaf persons bord the bus and the driver yelled at them. I told the driver they are deaf. It is hard to educate the able bodied as they could careless. My late dad wore hearing aids. I don't. I do use headphones on the TV as I have to turn it up and we live in an apt. There are things I can't hear. I do understand. We are persons with the sames feeling as everyone else. As ye pointed out ASL is way different from gang signs. I used to print in the hand od a deaf/blind older man. He was smart.


by barbaram99 May 3, 2011 12:06 AM EDT: The deaf use their hands to talk. It is not gang signs. They won't clean up the gang problem as gangs do go all the back to the founding of this nation. I read about it.; Reply to this comment


by LusciousDC May 2, 2011 11:40 PM EDT: End their lives and anyone related to them. We do not need this kind of stupid in the gene pool. How ******** stupid do you have to be to be able to tell sign language from gang signs?; Reply to this comment

by rwsmith29456 May 2, 2011 9:24 PM EDT

trash

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by Anonomousamerican May 3, 2011 10:27 AM EDT: scum


by Well_You_Aint_Me May 2, 2011 7:48 PM EDT: She obviously lives in the shallow end of the gene pool.; Reply to this comment


by nojoy01 May 2, 2011 6:08 PM EDT: Too bad she can't get life + 99 years. Somebody that stupid shouldn't be let back out on the street again.; Reply to this comment