JACKSON HEIGHTS—Eleven years after a gay man was brutally killed in an attack on Roosevelt Avenue, community members were set to rally Tuesday evening to raise $1,000 so that the victim's ashes can be sent back to his homeland of Colombia.
The fundraiser, organized by Councilman Daniel Dromm and Club Evolution, is an effort to help Edgar Garzón's mother Leonor, who moved back to Colombia after her husband was diagnosed with lung cancer and is too poor to make the trip back to New York.
Edgar Garzón was a 35-year old set designer at the time of his brutal death in 2001, according to published reports.
On the day of his attack, Garzón, was on his way back home from Friends Tavern, a gay bar on Roosevelt Avenue, the New York Times said.
He was reportedly followed by two men in a red car, one of whom hit Garzón on his head with a blunt object.
The vicious attack left Garzón in a coma with a fractured skull, according to the paper. He never woke up.
His attacker, John McGhee, of England was eventually tracked down and sentenced to 22 years to life in prison.
The Garzón family suffered another tragedy this year, when Edgar's father Armando passed away of lung cancer.
His mother, who can't afford to fly back to the U.S. to collect her son's ashes, is hoping the community will help her out so that her son's final resting place is next to his father's grave in Bogota, Dromm said.
Dromm said the amount he hopes to raise, $1,000 dollars, is roughly the cost of sending Edgar's ashes back to Colombia.
The fundraiser, which is open to the public, starts at 6 p.m. at Club Evolution, 76-19 Roosevelt Ave. For more details on the event, go to Facebook.
