The mom of the development employee who was slaughtered in a random Manhattan assault by a knife-wielding madman broke down in tears as household and mates gathered for a candlelit vigil on the very spot he was murdered.
Angel Gustavo Lata-Landi, 36, was standing exterior a Chelsea work website when homeless maniac Ramon Rivera, 51, allegedly stabbed him within the abdomen throughout a stunning daylight spree that took the lives of two different harmless bystanders on Monday.
His heartbroken mom, Mercedes Landi, mentioned she spoke to her son the night time earlier than he was killed — and is now tasked with taking his physique again to the Ecuadoran metropolis he left 20 years in the past for his funeral.
“There are no words how I feel,” mentioned an emotional Landi, by a translator, upon arriving on the West Facet road the place her son was stabbed to demise.
Landi, who traveled from Ecuador to the Huge Apple, gathered with the tearful crowd within the rain Friday night time at 444 West nineteenth St.
Almost a dozen family members created a small memorial with flowers, candles and photographs — forsaking Lata-Landi’s white onerous hat — as they remembered his life.
“He acted like I’m his son,” his 9-year-old nephew, Alan Ochoa, instructed The Publish.
“He lived in the Bronx but sometimes he’d come over and cook out. I just wish he was back alive.”
Lata-Landi was the primary sufferer killed round 8:20 a.m. throughout the stunning stabbing spree allegedly carried out by Rivera, a homeless man with a prolonged legal historical past and documented psychological well being points — who had been sprung on supervised launch simply final month on a non-bail eligible offense simply final month.
The deranged stabber trekked from the West Facet to the East River waterline, the place he fatally knifed Chang Wang, 67, who was fishing simply earlier than 10:30 a.m., cops mentioned.
The third and ultimate sufferer — Wilma Augustin, 36 — was stabbed to demise close to the United Nations constructing about half-hour later. She was a single mom of an 8-year-old boy.
Rivera, who instructed cops he focused his victims as a result of they have been “alone” and “distracted,” was arrested shortly after the ultimate stabbing and located with two knives, court docket papers said.
The Landi household is contemplating taking authorized motion towards the town after New York’s lax bail reform legal guidelines allowed the violent, mentally in poor health offender to roam the streets, in keeping with Walter Sinche, the chief director of the Worldwide Ecuadorian Alliance who spoke on their behalf.
“At this point, all they want is justice,” he mentioned.
“Unfortunately, the system failed. He was a dangerous person. Why did they let him out?”
