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Driving along Northern Boulevard, the white Lexus passed at least two restaurants, one car dealership, a doctor’s office and a row of stores all adorning signs half in English, half in Korean. The further east it headed, the closer the 1998 Toyota behind it rode up on its bumper.

It was the first time Reynold Liang, 19, and John Lu, 19, had ever been called what they just had, not David Wu though. He had heard it before. But for Liang and Lu, both of Little Neck, no one had ever called them “gooks,” let alone scream at them with as much hate as the two guys who were riding their bumper just had.

Liang rolled up the driver’s window of his Lexus, filled with Chinese-Americans, and the next thing he knew, the tailgating Toyota rammed into them.

Not sure of what to do, and with fear overpowering his shock, Liang sped up in an attempt to escape the Toyota and the two white men within it. As soon as they disappeared from his rearview mirror, Liang made a left off Northern Boulevard onto Douglaston Parkway pulling over near 44th Avenue, just two blocks from his home. Lu got out of the car and inspected the damage to the rear of the Lexus. The clock inside the car read 2:30 a.m.

As Lu, a Little Neck resident and sophomore at SUNY Albany, looked at the bumper a pair of headlights appeared in the Saturday morning darkness. It was the Toyota pulling up alongside him. Kevin Brown, 19, of 196-40 45th Ave., and Paul Heavey, 20, of 43-35 247th St., got out of the car and approached Lu. Brown and Heavey allegedly began to repeatedly punch Lu in the head and body, as they yelled, “What were you doing in our neighborhood, gook?” Lu said.

Liang jumped from his Lexus to help his friend, who was hunched over on the ground being pummeled. As Liang, a Little Neck resident and SUNY Stony Brook sophomore, reached for his friend, Brown and Heavey allegedly began to punch and kick him in the head, police said. Crawling back to his car, Liang picked up “The Club,” which was then allegedly grabbed from him by the men, who used it to hit him over and over in the face and body, fracturing his skull, cutting open his face. A fourth Asian man in the car was not injured.

As news of the hate-filled attack filtered throughout the city Monday morning, the borough’s politicians began to speak out.

“It’s sad, but not shocking that this kind of hate crime still occurs,” Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing) said, standing behind Liang, Lu and Wu at his Flushing office. Lu, with bandaged stitches over his right eye, looked on at the news cameras as Liang winced his blackened eyes each time a camera flash captured his swollen face.

“It’s necessary to send a strong message that the community does not tolerate this kind of hateful violence and bigotry,” said Liu, who believes only a forceful response will prevent future incidents in a borough where hate crimes have made headlines over the past year.

Standing on the quiet corner, where a church, residential homes and an apartment complex meet at the intersection of Douglaston Parkway and 44th Avenue Tuesday, Councilman Tony Avella (D-Bayside) called for “the book to be thrown” at Heavey and Brown “if they are found guilty.”

Other elected officials came together on the steps of Borough Hall Wednesday to boast of the borough’s diversity and declare that even one hate crime in the community is one too many, as Borough President Helen Marshall called for additional police patrols in northeast Queens.

Not one of the politicians, however, gave a solution other than harsher prosecution.

“If anything is going to fix this, it’s the parents,” said a resident standing outside her 44th Avenue home, looking towards Douglaston Parkway. “We need to listen to what is being said inside these homes and start there, or nothing is going to change.”

Heavey and Brown were charged with assault as a hate crime, as well as reckless endangerment and criminal mischief. Brown, the son of a retired city cop, was also charged with resisting arrest. Heavey was released on $10,000 bail and Brown remains in jail on $25,000 bail.

“I sincerely hope that the people who did this are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Lily Liang, Reynold’s mother said.