By Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Police identified a decorated Air Force sergeant as the chief suspect in a gay hate crime outside a Hell's Kitchen bar in September.
The NYPD intelligence divison tracked Air Force Staff Sgt. Benjamin Ford to his base in England, the Daily News reported.
Ford, who was awarded the Bronze Star, was in New York as part of President Barack Obama's United Nations security detail when he got into a fight outside McCoy's Bar in Hell's Kitchen with DJ Blake Hayes, police said.
Ford allegedly flicked a cigarette at Hayes, and his friends Alec Bell and Danny Calvert, before shoving Calvert and punching Bell in the face, the Daily News reported.
"Keep moving, f----t," Ford allegedly said to Hayes.
"On paper, he's a hero," Hayes told the News. "But when it comes to what happened...he deserves to be punished."
Although Hayes reported the incident to the NYPD, officers did not initially file the complaint. In a separate investigation, the internal affairs division of the NYPD was looking over the police response.
The NYPD and the Manhattan District Attorney's Office agreed to let the U.S. Military try and punish Ford through their court system, according to the News.
