Hot 97 has fired longtime staffer Paddy Duke after a new documentary alleged that he was part of a mob that killed a black teen in the ’80s.
Duke, born Pasquale Raucci, was hired by the famed radio station’s parent company in 1994 and eventually became its commercial programming director, according to the Root. But when Hot 97 honchos saw HBO’s “Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn” — which details the 1989 shooting of 16-year-old Hawkins — they discovered that Duke, who is white, was one of eight men charged in relation to the killing.
Hawkins went to Bensonhurst with some friends to check out a used car, but were attacked by a group of some 30 white men because they believed that one of the teens was dating a white woman they knew.
According to the New York Times, Duke “was convicted of three counts of unlawful imprisonment, but these felony convictions were dropped by the judge, who sentenced him to probation and community service for possession of a bat as a weapon.” He was cleared on the murder charges.
A statement released by Hot 97 Monday read, “After watching HBO’s ‘Storm Over Brooklyn,’ Hot 97 was shocked and took swift action. Paddy Duke is no longer employed by Hot 97.”
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