An elderly Brooklyn man critically injured in an unprovoked assault in September died last week after spending the past six weeks hospitalized, police said.
Angel Diaz, 79, was assaulted September 13th on the block of Hoyt Street where he lived in Boerum Hill, police said. Shortly before 9 p.m., an unidentified man approached Diaz and punched him, knocking him to the sidewalk.
The assailant continued to punch Diaz several times as Diaz tried to ward him off with his cane, security camera footage of the attack shows. The assailant fled on foot afterwards in an unknown direction.
Diaz was taken first to Methodist Hospital in stable condition and later transferred to Bellevue, where he died October 29th. His cause of death was not immediately available.
Diaz’s niece Abigail Diaz told the Daily News that she visited her uncle in the hospital: “I saw he couldn’t move, he couldn’t speak, he couldn’t eat. His face was fractured and swollen,” she told the paper. "I was like, this is how he’s going to die, after everything he’s been through in his life?”
The medical examiner’s office did not immediately respond to an inquiry Wednesday about cause of death.
Video of the attack was released by police (warning: graphic violence):
Police ask that anyone with information about the attack contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) (for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). Info can also be submitted online via www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or on Twitter @NYPDTips. All calls can be confidential.
