Date: Fri, 14 Jan 1994 10:51:59 -0500 From: Song Weaver TYLER, Texas (UPI) - Hundreds of people braved chilly afternoon temperatures Saturday to attend a "Stop the Hate Rally" in Tyler to call attention to hate crimes against homosexuals. The rally was sparked by the Nov. 30 slaying of Nicholas Ray West, a 23-year-old gay man from Tyler who was abducted and taken to a remote area of Smith County and shot to death. Sheriff's investigators say the three men arrested in connection with West's slaying say they killed him because he was gay. West was kidnapped from the park where the rally was held. The park is frequented by gays. Rally organizers said the event was held show support for law enforcement officials who investigated West's killing as a hate crime. Police said 350 people attended the rally but organizers estimated the crowd at 1,500. Absent from the rally were members of West's family, some of whom have said that their son's death was being exploited to generate support for a political agenda. But organizer Wesley Beard, 21, said "If we are trying to use his death, it is to try to prevent the same senseless death from happening to someone else."