Angel Lata Landi called his mother in Ecuador on Sunday, as he did every week. He told her he would not be able to send her money as he usually did because his bills had mounted. But he promised to make up for it soon.
The following day, in the next call she got from her family, his mother, Mercedes Landi, learned that her son was dead.
Mr. Lata Landi, a 36-year-old construction worker, was one of three people fatally stabbed by a man who went on a killing spree in Manhattan on Monday. Mr. Lata Landi was getting a ladder on West 19th Street when he was stabbed, his family said.
The assailant went on to kill two other strangers, the police said: Wilma Augustin, 36, a Haitian migrant 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 in the attacks. He was arrested after a cabdriver saw the third attack, followed him and reported him to a police officer.
After attending Mr. Rivera’s arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday, members of Mr. Lata Landi’s family said they felt hopeless, anguished and afraid.
“It left a big void in our hearts,” said his sister Berta Landi, 43, speaking in Spanish in an interview on Wednesday at the Queens office of Alianza Ecuatoriana Internacional, a nonprofit that is helping the family. “I want that man to stay inside and not come out, to pay for everything he did.”
She added, “I know that it is not going to make amends; it is not going to give me back my brother.”
Mr. Lata Landi came to the United States from Cuenca, Ecuador, when he was about 16, his sister said. Almost immediately, she said, he started working construction jobs, climbing scaffolding to great heights so he could earn enough money to afford a simple but joyful life.
His aunt Mariana Lata, 55, said she had once asked him why he was not afraid to do the work he did. He answered that everyone was going to die someday, she recalled.
His sudden death still felt unreal to her, she said, like something you see other families go through on television, never thinking that it could happen to you.
“The truth is that I’m terrified now of going out on the street, maybe having to walk with my eyes wide open because you don’t know if there is another crazy person out there,” she said.
Mr. Lata Landi lived in the Bronx with his aunt and her husband, along with a 16-year-old nephew whose mother had died and whose guardian he became, Ms. Lata said.
On Saturday, she said, he went to Peekskill, N.Y., where his sister lived. He cooked crab soup with her and had beers with his brother-in-law. On Monday, he had been quieter than usual. He promised to be home in the afternoon to take his terrier, Jack, on a walk and buy him a treat.
Ms. Lata said he provided for the family, always paying the rent and also 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 wrenching sobs, he asked her forgiveness for not being able to send money that week and for making her suffer.
She said she told him that he never made her suffer. He assured her that one day his dreams of getting married and having children would come true. Until then, he hoped to leave the house and land he owned in Ecuador to his nephew if anything were to happen to him, she said.
Mr. Lata Landi’s relatives said they wanted to properly memorialize him. In Ecuador, they said, it is customary to put a deceased loved one’s body on display for several days. They were not permitted to do that in New York.
They want to take Mr. Lata Landi’s body home to Ecuador, but according to his sister, that could cost up to $15,000. They are working with Alianza Ecuatoriana Internacional to start a GoFundMe campaign to raise the money. They are also making arrangements for a service early next month at a funeral home in Manhattan.
In the meantime, Ms. Lata said, they are mourning along with family members in Ecuador. “They call me and cry along with me,” she said. “He was a young boy who had his dreams; he still had his plans,” she added. “We all come for a dream.”
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