By Jeremy Walsh
The mother of an Ecuadorian immigrant fatally beaten in a suspected hate crime attack in Brooklyn arrived in the United States a day too late to say goodbye to her son.
Jose Sucuzhanay, 31, died Friday at Elmhurst Hospital Center, friends and family said. He was being kept on life support until his mother could arrive to make the decision, community organizer Francisco Moya said.
“My heart is broken,” said Diego Sucuzhanay, Jose’s brother, at a news conference Sunday. “His memories will live forever.”
Their mother, who arrived Saturday night after some difficulty with her visa, was staying with her other children while arrangements were made to transfer her son’s body back to Ecuador, Diego Sucuzhanay said.
Jose Sucuzhanay, who ran a real estate business in the neighborhood where he was killed, left behind a son, a daughter and 12 siblings, his family said. He also co-owned a building on Hancock Street in Ridgewood, according to city Department of Finance records.
Police had no detailed information about the Dec. 7 assault, but the New York Post quoted a police source saying that Jose Sucuzhanay left a Mexican bar in Bushwick, Brooklyn, with his brother, Rommel, around 3:30 a.m.
The brothers were holding each other up by the arms when an SUV pulled up, three black men jumped out, shouted slurs against gays and Hispanics and bashed Jose in the head with a baseball bat, the Post reported.
“This is a wake-up call and it shows how far we still must come,” Moya said. “Only by working together to expose these crimes can we move forward.”
Diego Sucuzhanay said he was baffled by the hate displayed in the attack.
“I still don’t understand,” he said. “My brother was a great man.”
Police were offering a $27,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the assailants.
“My brother may have been the victim this time, but tomorrow it may be someone else,” he said.
While the attack carried echoes of the Nov. 8 murder of an Ecuadorian man allegedly at the hands of a mob of teens on Long Island, it also gave pause to Queens residents who remember the fatal 2001 attack on Jackson Heights resident Edgar Garzon, a gay Colombian immigrant.
“It causes anybody who’s different to worry,” said Democratic District Leader Daniel Dromm, a leader in the gay community in Jackson Heights. “You have to always look over your shoulder.”
Diego Sucuzhanay urged anyone with information about the attack to call the police at 1-800-577-8477.
Reach reporter Jeremy Walsh by e-mail at jwalsh@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
