An immigrant’s dream was shattered after he was murdered in NY

New York.- On Sunday, Ángel Lata Landi, a construction worker, called his mother in Ecuador, who helped him with support. The next day, he was one of three people murdered on the streets of Manhattan. Ángel Lata Landi called his mother in Ecuador on Sunday, as he did every week. He told her that he couldn’t send her money like he used to because his bills had accumulated. But he promised to make up for it soon. The next day, in the next call he received from his family, his mother, Mercedes Landi, learned that her son had died. Lata Landi, a 36-year-old construction worker, was one of three people fatally stabbed by a man who went on a killing spree Monday in Manhattan. Lata Landi was reaching for a ladder on West 19th Street when he was stabbed, his family said. The gunman went on to kill two other foreigners, police said: Wilma Augustin, 36, a Haitian immigrant who was living in a Midtown shelter; and Chang Wang, 67, who had been fishing along the East River. Ramon Rivera, 51, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder for the attacks. He was arrested after a taxi driver saw the third attack, followed and alerted a police officer. After attending Rivera’s appearance in Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday, Lata Landi’s relatives said they felt hopeless, confused and scared. “He left a big hole in the heart,” said his sister Berta Landi, 43, speaking in Spanish in an interview Wednesday at the office of the Queen’s Alianza Ecuadoriana Internacional, a nonprofit that is helping the family. I want that man to stay inside and not come out, to pay for everything he has done.” And he said: “I know he won’t fix it; he’s not going to give me my brother back.” Ángel Lata Landi came to the United States from Cuenca, Ecuador, when he was about 16 years old ‘age, his sister said. Almost immediately, he said, he started working in construction, climbing scaffolding to great heights so that he could earn enough to live a simple but happy life. He said Her aunt Mariana Lata, 55, once asked her why she wasn’t afraid to do the work she did. He replied that everyone was going to die someday suddenly still seems unreal to her, she said, like something you see other families go through on television, without thinking it could happen to you. “The truth is the fear me now about going out on the street, I might have to walk with my eyes wide open because you never know there’s another crazy person out there,” he said. Lata Landi lived in the Bronx with his aunt and her husband, along with a 16-year-old nephew whose mother had died and for whom he was a guardian, Lata said. Saturday, he said, he went to Peekskill, New York, where his sister lived. He cooked crab soup with him and drank beer with his brother-in-law. Monday was quieter than usual. He promised that he would be home in the afternoon to walk his terrier, Jack, and buy him a present. Lata said he supported the family, always paying rent and sending money to his mother in Ecuador, who was being treated for cancer, to help with medical bills and food. During their last phone call, his mother said, between broken sobs, that he apologized for not being able to send money that week and for making her suffer. She told him that he had never made her suffer. He assured her that one day her dream of marriage and having children would come true. Until then, he hoped to leave the house and land he had in Ecuador to his nephew in case something happened to him, he said. Lata Landi’s relatives said they wanted to remember him properly. In Ecuador, they said, it is customary to observe the body of a deceased person for several days. In New York they weren’t allowed to do that. They want to take Lata Landi’s body to Ecuador, but, according to her sister, that could cost up to 15 thousand dollars. They are working with Alianza Ecuadoriana Internacional to start a GoFundMe campaign to raise the money. They are also preparing for a service early next month at a funeral home in Manhattan. At the same time, Lata said, they are mourning with family members in Ecuador. “They call me and yell at me,” he said. “He was a young boy who had dreams, he still had his plans,” he said. “We all come to dream.”