Today: Jose Sucuzhanay Memorial

On Friday, hours before his mother arrived from Ecuador, Jose Sucuzhanay’s heart stopped and he was declared dead.

An Ecuadorean immigrant who was brutally beaten with a bottle and baseball bat last week by men said to be shouting anti-gay and anti-Hispanic slurs has died, a family spokesman said on Saturday night. Three Sucuzhanay brothers — from left, Romel, Diego and Pedro — last week leaving Elmhust Hospital Center in Queens, where Jose Sucuzhanay had been on life support.

The victim, Jose O. Sucuzhanay, died on Friday night at Elmhurst Hospital Center as his mother was traveling from Ecuador to see him one last time, said the family spokesman, Francisco Moya. Mr. Sucuzhanay’s family had kept him on life support in anticipation of his mother’s arrival, but on Friday, his heart stopped. In a statement on Saturday night, Mr. Sucuzhanay’s brother Diego said he was “at a loss beyond words” at his brother’s death, which the police are investigating as a hate crime. The police were still looking for Mr. Sucuzhanay’s assailants, but said that detectives had been investigating the attack as homicide, a law enforcement official said. Mr. Sucuzhanay, who suffered skull fractures and massive brain damage, was declared brain-dead on Tuesday, and a death certificate was filed last week.

A memorial march and vigil for Jose Sucuzhanay takes place at 2pm today in Bushwick, Brooklyn at the scene of attack. Facebook link here. You can also find details in my post here. NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and representatives from the Human Rights Campaign, the NYC Anti-Violence Project, the NAACP, the NYCLU, the NYC Immigration Coalition and other LGBT and Latino groups will attend. I’l be there too, I encourage you all to attend.