Fatal punch hell
Victim landed on streets after wife’s death
A homeless man had been trying to pull his life together after more two decades of mental illness, addiction and misfortune when a fatal punch sent him sprawling onto a Manhattan sidewalk, friends say.
Reinaldo Vega, 65, was standing on a Kips Bay streetcorner about 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 10, selling loose cigarettes, when he got into an argument with another man who wanted Vega to stop, the victim’s close friend told the Daily News.
The argument ended in a brief outburst of violence: Luis Colon, 52, punched Vega in the face, cops said.
Vega, who was already battling a litany of medical ailments, went flying backward and hit his head on the pavement at the corner of Mount Carmel Place and E. 27th St., a block from Bellevue Hospital.
He was knocked unconscious, and five days later, he died. Colon was charged with assault, but after an autopsy ruled Vega’s death a homicide, he could face more serious charges. The status of his case was not immediately known Sunday night.
Vega used to work security at Monroe College, where his wife had an accounting job, but that life fell apart more than two decades ago, when his spouse died of a heart attack, said close friend Carlo Mesa.
“When she died, his heart was broken. He lost his job, he lost his home, he fell on to the streets, he started doing drugs,” Mesa said.
Mesa said he met Vega at a methadone clinic at Bellevue, where Vega sought help 12 years ago. Mesa owns a coffee cart, and he’d give Vega free coffee in the morning — and the two bonded after that.
“He came out after the program and spoke to us, and I or my sister would give him a free coffee. We give free coffees to anyone from the program,” Mesa said. “He would help us with the coffee cart. He would help in the morning and at night.”
“’Naldo did not have family. He went to a three-fourths shelter to live for a few years,” Mesa added. “The government put him in a shelter in Brooklyn. He had gone from each place to each place.”
For the past four years, Vega lived in a halfway house in Morrisania, the Bronx, until six months ago, when he lost his spot there, Mesa said. He moved to the Lucerne Hotel on the Upper West Side — now infamous for the city’s effort, after complaints from neighborhood residents, to eject the more than 200 homeless men living there during the pandemic.
But Mesa said his sister helped Vega apply for a soonto-be-built housing facility in Manhattan, and he was granted a studio apartment through a lottery system.
“’Naldo wanted to live there. He knew he would be able to rest there,” he said.
Vega suffered from diabetes, multiple sclerosis, colon cancer and partial blindness, and the new facility was set to have medical personnel on staff, Mesa said.
“He was such a respectful person. My nieces and nephews, my sister’s children, they all loved him,” Mesa said. “He was the unique one, the only person outside the family they loved. And they called him Tio, because they thought of him like an uncle.”
The day he was attacked, Mesa urged Vega to stay at the Lucerne, instead of hanging out on the streets, where he might be tempted to take drugs. Normally, they’d set up the coffee cart together, but Mesa was sick with an ear infection that day.
He was getting treatment at Metropolitan Hospital when he got a phone call and learned Vega was in a coma.
“’Naldo sold cigarettes, he did it for money,” his friend explained. “The man had harassed ’Naldo and told him not to sell cigarettes. He then told ’Naldo to give him his money.”
Vega said “No,” Mesa recounted, and tried to push past the man, who punched him in the face.
“He was saving money to go to Puerto Rico. ’Naldo is Puerto Rican. He was going to visit his mother,” Vega said. “But my sister found out his mother had died over 10 years ago, and she hadn’t told him yet. So we said to him, ‘Don’t worry about the money, stay here and rest.’ ”
Mesa said he’s glad Colon could be held criminally responsible.
“I want that man put away for 25 years to life. He can do it again and will do it again,” Mesa alleged. “I don’t want other people to suffer like ’Naldo.”