Construction worker victim in Manhattan fatal stabbing spree was to marry in 2 weeks

NEW YORK — Angel Lata Landi, the immigrant construction worker killed in an unprovoked attack cops say was carried out by a homeless man on a stabbing spree across Manhattan, planned to marry in two weeks, the Daily News has learned.

The 36-year-old victim’s wedding plans were cruelly ended when he was stabbed multiple times as he stood outside his work site on W. 19th St. near Tenth Ave. in Chelsea about 8:20 a.m. Monday.

“He had a fiancee. They were about to get married,” community activist Walther Sinche said Wednesday, adding that the couple met in Lata Landi’s native Ecuador.

“They’ve been together almost a few years. They have a good relationship over the years and then when she came to the U.S. she came to Boston. Now she was about to move together with him.”

Lata Landi immigrated from Cuenca in Ecuador 20 years ago. He had a 16-year-old nephew he had been raising as a son from a young age — ever since the boy’s mother, Lata Landi’s sister, died from cancer.

“(Lata Landi) was always a father figure to me,” the nephew told CBS News New York. “Thousands of people in Manhattan and why? Out of everyone, he chose my guy.”

The hard-working construction worker lived in the Bronx with the nephew and two other relatives.

“He was the provider,” said Sinche. “It was his responsibility to raise his nephew. He was the legal custodian. He was acting like a father. So he was paying the rent, he was helping the family, his mother in Ecuador, because she has cancer. So a lot of people depended on him.”

Lata Landi, who worked as a roofer, was also a generous friend, helping those he knew get jobs in construction.

“He was very compassionate with all the guys. At some point yesterday, a couple of guys, they were his friends, they were there to support because they said he helped them to get a job,” Sinche said. “So he was a very helpful guy, always trying to help others.”

Lata Landi also doted on his dog, Jack. Lata Landi’s heartbroken relatives even brought the dog to Manhattan Criminal Court for Rivera’s arraignment Tuesday but had to keep the pooch outside.

“Yesterday (the family) were saying the dog also feels the absence of Angel,” said Sinche. “He was very close to the dog.”

Lata Landi’s family are now struggling to figure out details like where his nephew will live and how they will survive without him.

“They’re still trying to understand why is this happening to them,” Sinche said. “Many questions came to their minds — and how they’re gonna live, the next few days, hours, months, years.”

Surveillance video obtained by The News shows Rivera moments before Lata Landi’s slaying standing next to a parked car, taking a sweatshirt out of a lavender backpack and putting it over his stained T-shirt and trousers.

His next chilling move is to take two large knives out of the bag and fumble as he tries to stuff them in the pocket of his sweatshirt.

The suspect, who admitted to selecting his victims because they appeared distracted, then walked up to the Lata Landi and allegedly stabbed him in the torso before running off, cops said.

Medics rushed Lata Landi to Bellevue Hospital, where he died about a half hour later.

“It’s an unfortunate situation because this poor man is also a victim of the system,” Sinche said of the suspect, who has numerous prior arrests and mental health episodes. “Because they knew that he was under many troubles, been arrested for many issues.”

“There should be an alert that this guy has some problems,” he added. “If this happened with him I’m pretty sure it’s happening with many others. So that means there’s other people out there, under the same circumstances. At this point I will feel unsafe walking in New York City.”

Lata Landi’s family was more blunt.

“What I want is for that bastard who took his life to rot,” Lata Landi’s aunt Maria Lata told NY1. “He does not know the pain he causes us. I would like for some of his family to also go through the same thing.”

Lata Landi’s family said a funeral will be held for him in New York before he is repatriated to Ecuador.

“He died working and we just want justice,” the victim’s sister Vertha Landi told Gothamist. “The city should take responsibility for the disaster we’ve been left with … This news is devastating because it left us with a huge hole.”

Mayor Eric Adams described the other victims in the spree at a press conference on Tuesday.

“One person is just fishing on FDR Drive and he’s stabbed,” Adams said.

Chang Wang was fishing on the East River Promenade near the Water Club at E. 30th St. and the FDR Drive in Kips Bay when he was stabbed multiple times by Rivera about 10:25 a.m., two hours after Lata Landi’s slaying, police said. He died at Bellevue Hospital.

A half hour after that attack, Rivera allegedly stabbed Wilma Augustin on E. 42nd St. and First Ave. in Murray Hill.

“A mother of a 8-year-old child,” Adams said of Rivera, who is from Haiti. “That child came here, that family came here to pursue the American dream.”

According to police, a passing cab driver saw the attack on Augustin near the United Nations, mistook it for a robbery, and flagged down a nearby cop.

NYPD Officer Robert Garvey, who had been posted near the United Nations on E. 44th St. and First Ave., caught up with Rivera on E. 46th St. and First Ave. and detained him. He is charged with three counts of murder and was ordered held without bail as he awaits trial.

Augustin was rushed to NY Presbyterian Weill Cornell Hospital in critical condition, where she clung to life until 5:57 p.m. Monday, a criminal complaint said.

She lived in in a hotel-turned-migrant shelter at W. 38th St. and Sixth Ave. in Midtown.

Adams, who the day of the spree said the mental health and criminal justice systems were at fault, said the city owes Augustin’s young son answers.

“How do you explain to that child what happened?,” he said. “This is the failure of our unwillingness to face the problem, address the problem, and don’t be so idealistic that we’re not realistic. People need care.”

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(With Josephine Stratman and Colin Mixson.)

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