‘I wish this on nobody’
Dad’s pain as peacemaker son in coma after attack by brute
A would-be peacemaker, leveled by a sucker punch from a Queens attacker, remained in a coma Tuesday after hitting his head on the pavement as he tumbled to the street, the victim’s father said.
Angel Ortiz, 24, had stepped in to defuse an escalating argument between his friends and two strangers on June 19 when he was sent reeling by the blow, his dad told the Daily News.
The dispute was ignited when the two brutes began tossing ice cubes at two women hanging out with Ortiz and his friends in Astoria.
“He didn’t get to throw no punches or anything,” said John Marquez of his still-unconscious son. “He went to stop it and they pushed his friend out of the way and they went and hit him.”
The NYPD released new surveillance video Tuesday showing both suspects, one with biceps bulging from his T-shirt, walking menacingly toward Ortiz and his friends. The clip showed the second suspect for the first time. Police are still looking for both men.
“He was like 6-foot-4, 220 pounds,” said Marquez of the man who attacked Ortiz. “Punched my son in the head and he fell back and hit his head. He’s been in the hospital fighting for his life since then.”
The father said Ortiz, whose kid sister graduated from kindergarten the morning of the attack, needed emergency brain surgery for a massive blood clot as doctors removed a piece of his skull due to the swelling and pressure. Surgeons required hundreds of staples to close the wound on his head.
“He doesn’t have problems with nobody,” Marquez said of his son. “I think it’s basically wrong place, wrong time, as they say. … It’s going to be a long road back.”
Ortiz, of Freeport, L.I., was rushed to Elmhurst Hospital Center and remains in critical condition after the 11:50 p.m. attack near 30th Ave. and 38th St.
The dad said his son was an unlikely candidate for any sort of violent confrontation, much less the savage attack that landed the young man in the intensive care unit.
“He has no enemies and he gets along with everybody,” said Marquez. “Any given time you call him, he’ll stop whatever he’s doing to help.”
The father expressed his hope for the future but was struggling with the reality of the present.
“It’s just a terrible, terrible thing we’re experiencing,” said the dad. “I wish this on nobody. What’s on his side is that he’s young and he’s healthy.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.