Body of Ecuadorean killed in New York returns home

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By JEANNETH VALDIVIESO – 15 hours ago

CUENCA, Ecuador (AP) — The body of an Ecuadorean immigrant beaten to death in New York arrived home for burial late Friday, following the third high-profile killing of a Latino immigrant in the U.S. this year.

Clutching candles, friends and family lined the roadway as the coffin of Jose Sucuzhanay, a 31-year-old real estate broker, wound its way from the airport to a funeral home in this highlands city near his rural hometown.

"Welcome ... no one will hurt you here," read a placard friends carried on the walk. "Enough already. No more migrant deaths."

Sucuzhanay was attacked by a group of men who kicked and beat him with an aluminum baseball bat, shouting anti-Latino and anti-gay slurs as he walked arm in arm with his brother near his Brooklyn home on Dec. 7.

New York City police are still searching for three suspects, and the NYPD's Hate Crime Task Force is investigating the incident.

"We're not only here to show our support, but to express our pain, our repudiation of these acts of xenophobia, these actions that have embarrassed us as human beings and that we all must fight," Ecuadorean Migration Minister Lorena Escudero said earlier Friday as she joined Sucuzhanay's mother to receive the body in the capital, Quito.

U.S. lawmakers and Hispanic groups have denounced Sucuzhanay's death, saying recent slayings of Latino immigrants lend new urgency to calls to pass a new hate crimes law and give local officials resources to investigate.

Sucuzhanay's killing follows the deaths of Luis Ramirez, 25, a Mexican immigrant who was beaten to death July 14 in eastern Pennsylvania; and Marcelo Lucero, 37, an Ecuadorean immigrant who was fatally stabbed Nov. 8 by a group of teenagers on Long Island, New York.

Prosecutors said seven teenagers charged in Lucero's assault had set out to attack a Hispanic person, while three teenagers linked to Ramirez's death also face charges of ethnic intimidation.

There were 830 Hispanic victims of hate crimes last year in the United States, up from 819 in 2006 and 595 in 2003, according to FBI statistics.

Sucuzhanay's funeral will be held Saturday in Cuenca, the capital of Ecuador's Azuay province, from which thousands of immigrants have left for the U.S. and Spain.

Lucero, also from the region, was buried outside Cuenca earlier this year.

On Friday, the streets were crowded with Sucuzhanay's friends and family, including his two children, Brian, 10, and Johanna, 4, who were raised by their paternal grandfather after their parents went to the U.S. in search of work.

"We only know that they attacked him. Why would they do that? We don't know," one of Sucuzhanay's uncles, Jose Reiban, told The Associated Press.

Homicide probe opened in apparent NYC bias crime

By COLLEEN LONG – 1 day ago

NEW YORK (AP) — Authorities opened a homicide investigation Tuesday into a vicious attack on an Ecuadorean immigrant whose assailants shouted anti-gay and anti-Hispanic slurs, then beat him with a baseball bat and kicked him.

Jose Sucuzhanay, 31, was attacked early Sunday as he walked arm in arm with his 38-year-old brother in Brooklyn. He had been listed in critical condition after undergoing brain surgery at Elmhurst Hospital in neighboring Queens.

A law enforcement official told The Associated Press that Sucuzhanay had been declared brain dead and was taken off life support Tuesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Relatives, though, held a news conference to say that Sucuzhanay was clinging to life and that the family had an important decision to make.

The three assailants were still being sought.

While it does not appear the men were targeted specifically for being Ecuadorean, members of the Latin American community said they feel vulnerable and must be vigilant about safety.

Police said Tuesday that the two brothers first attended a church party, then stopped at a bar. They may have been tipsy as they leaned on each other for support walking home.

Jose wore a tank top, Romel a T-shirt with a jacket tied over his shoulders. Arm in arm, they paused at a street corner where a sport utility vehicle was at a stoplight, police said.

Witnesses nearby said they heard the men in the car shouting anti-gay and anti-Hispanic slurs at the brothers. One attacker jumped out of the SUV and smashed a beer bottle over Jose Sucuzhanay's head.

As Romel Sucuzhanay ran away, two other men exited the vehicle and joined the assault, police said. One hit Jose Sucuzhanay in the head with an aluminum baseball bat while the others kicked him, police said.

At some point, the brother returned holding a cell phone and announced he had called police. The attackers drove off, and Romel Sucuzhanay escaped uninjured.

Police, who revised their account of the crime Tuesday after initially saying there were four attackers, said robbery was not a motive. The office of Brooklyn prosecutor Charles Hynes and the New York Police Department's hate crime task force were investigating. They urged the public to help identify the attackers.

The NYPD is offering a $22,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects.

Associated Press writers Verena Dobnik and Tom Hays contributed to this report.