JACKSON HEIGHTS —The elderly woman who died days after she was mugged for her purse was a "tough New Yorker" reluctant to leave the neighborhood which provided her comfort, according to her grieving son.
Celica Londono, 80, was mugged and pushed to the ground on the corner of 76th Street and 35th Avenue after parolee Jordan Vecchio used a boxcutter to slash her purse from her body before shoving her to the ground on Sept. 5, at 4:40 p.m., police said.
Despite suffering injuries to her face, arm and abdomen during the attack, Londono still managed to identify him to police before dying four days later during surgery for injuries sustained in the attack.
Her only child, Ariel Londono, 41, said his mother loved her family and Jackson Heights — a neighborhood she felt comfortable in.
Every few months he'd try to get him to move in with his family on Long Island, but she resisted.
"She'd say, 'no, I love Jackson Heights,'" he said.
Londono emigrated to Queens from Uruguay in the 1960s and lived in the same apartment on 76th Street since 1969, her son said.
She enjoyed being in a place where she could speak predominately Spanish, and enjoyed being near familiar people and shops.
Londono worked as a tailor and seamstress, mending clothes for wealthy Manhattanites in the evenings once her husband got home from his office job, Ariel Londono said.
She later went to work full-time at Barney's, but her retirement dreams of traveling were put on hold to care for her husband, Oscar, who died in 2005 from Alzheimer's disease.
But she stayed active, taking day trips to nearby casinos and visiting her son at his house on Long Island and for a weekly lunch at his office in Manhattan — taking the LIRR and the E train by herself.
"She was a tough New Yorker," he said.
"You live in the inner city — whether it's Jackson Heights, Bayside, Whitestone or Bed-Stuy — you have to be aware. A New Yorker knows. She was no fool."
The violent daytime attack while his mother was out running errands with her 91-year-old sister-in-law is what has him shaken.
"It's 4:30 p.m. on a sunny Saturday — what else do you want? It's random," Londono said. His aunt, while not injured in the attaack, is still distraught.
"The violence is what gets me inside as a human being, the violence as a son is heartbreaking," he added.
His 12-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter affectionately called their grandmother "maaama" and are still grieving the death of their maternal grandmother in May.
"They are numb," he said.
Londono's funeral will be held Saturday, Sept. 19 at 1 p.m. at Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Centereach, on Long Island.
Vecchio, 32, was out on parole at the time of the attack for stealing a car, and had also been arrested in August for trespassing, records show. He allegedly told police he hoped Londono was hurt in the attack — and that "nobody cares about her age," according to the criminal complaint.
"I'll max out my parole and come out better and stronger, I wish she got hurt," he allegedly said.
Vecchio is currently being held at Rikers Island on charges of robbery, assault and criminal possession of a weapon and is due back in court Sept. 23, records show. A psychiatric evaluation was ordered at his last court date and prosecutors are expected to bring upgraded charges in light of Londono's death.
A call to his lawyer was not immediately returned.
Ariel Londono said while the city and Jackson Heights aren't anywhere near as dangerous as they were when he was growing up, the attack was alarming to him.
"It's not as bad as then, my hope is it's not where we're going," he said.
"Whoever sees these articles, hopefully they realize they need to be tough on crime."
He added that, "barring a catastrophe," he'll be at every court date for Vecchio to make sure the crime "doesn't go unnoticed."
"I'm certainly going to honor her to make sure this absolute human filth ends up in jail for a long, long time," he said.
