SAD GOODBYE
Kin stay with bike-gang vic as he dies at hosp
Estranged relatives of a Queens man reunited with him as he lay dying in the hospital after he was deliberately knocked off his bicycle by a marauding gang of motorcyclists.
Victim Eucario Xelo, 65, was riding his bike west on Seneca Ave. toward Woodbine St. near his Ridgewood home when the pack of rowdy motorcyclists happened upon him just before 1 a.m. Aug. 28., cops said.
Video obtained by the Daily News shows the leader of the group, riding an ATV, veer into Xelo at high speed, sending him flying off his bicycle.
The heartless gang left him lying unconscious and unresponsive in the roadway
Xelo managed to cling to life for a week at Elmhurst Hospital Center, where he was surrounded by family, including his ex-wife, who hadn't seen him in years.
"I went to see him at the hospital and I couldn't believe it," ex-wife Augustina Hernandez, 54, told the Daily News, speaking in Spanish. "I felt really bad seeing him that way . . . . There were no words for that.”
“All the family was reunited,” added Hernandez, who split from Xelo 20 years ago. "I consoled my kids and told them to pray. Everything depended on the doctors and God.”
Xelo died at the hospital Saturday.
Cops are still trying to find the motorcyclists and ATV rider.
Police sources said the gang was caught on video running another bicyclist off the road, knocking him off his bike, minutes after assaulting Xelo. That cyclist was not seriously injured.
“I hope they catch them," Hernandez said. "I hope there's justice because if they did that to an older person they could keep doing it to other people. They're going to keep doing it until they receive their punishment. For them, it's a game what they did — and it's not a game."
The incident recalled the 2013 pursuit and beating of a motorist in Washington Heights by a massive group of motorcyclists. Alexian Lien accidentally struck one of the bikers with his Range Rover, prompting the mob to chase his vehicle when he drove off as they became threatening.
The bikers broke Lien's windows, dragged him out of the SUV, and beat him senseless in front of his wife and daughter. Eleven of the riders were indicted for the caughton-video attack, including two police officers.
The incident led the NYPD to crack down on bikers. Former top cop Bill Bratton even ordered 69 seized motorcycles to be crushed by bulldozers in a memorable event in 2016.
Xelo came to the United States from Mexico in 1979 to search for a better life, relatives said. He had five kids and supported himself making pizzas and driving a cab. He was struck after leaving his dish-washing job at El Nuevo Jorge's Restaurant about a block away,
"He was a great worker," the restaurant's manager, who declined to give his name, told the Daily News. “He was really good."
His relatives echoed that sentiment.
"He was a nice man, a hardworking man," said stepdaughter Sandra Hernandez, 38. "My stepdad didn't like drinking, none of that. He's was the type of person that he didn't like having problems with nobody. He would just stay in his own way."
Eucario Xelo Jr., Xelo's son, was busy making funeral plans Monday.
"It's tough having to deal with all these arrangements," the grief-stricken son said.