On a violent Bronx street, two hardworking brothers enjoying a rare night out fell victim to a deadly attack, devastating their family.
Hector and Leider Guevara Cubas, ages 24 and 27, were attending a party with their mother’s cousin on Stratford Ave. near Westchester Ave. in Soundview early Saturday when their relative decided to leave. However, the brothers decided to extend the night and attend a second party down the block.
According to authorities, the brothers got into an incident with a group of guys outside the second-party site around 4:50 a.m., and both siblings were stabbed as a result. Police and the brothers’ families reported that they knifed Hector in the belly and stabbed Leider in the chest.
“My heart has been destroyed. Merly, the wife of older brother Leider and mother of his infant boy, told the Daily News, “I feel alone.”
“At twelve, he called and said he’s going to stay at the party for a little while and the next day I woke up, I didn’t see my husband and they called and told me to run to the hospital fast,” Merly recounted, crying.
They took both guys to Jacobi Medical Center, but they didn’t survive.
According to friends and relatives, the Guevara Cubas brothers moved to the United States from Peru about two or three years ago, where they lived, worked, and protected one another.
Merly revealed how a senseless act of violence ruined her and their 4-year-old kid’s lives in the blink of an eye, recalling that Leider spent the day playing with his little son before going out for the evening.
“My husband was a lovely husband and father. I’m not sure what to do now.” My husband and his brother died,” Merly explained. “I never thought this would happen.”
She hasn’t informed their small child about his father’s death, and she’s uncertain about how she will deliver the devastating news.
“Now I don’t know what I am going to tell my son,” she stated. “I feel fearful when my son inquires about his father.”
According to family, Leider was a devoted father who was inseparable from his son.
“My son and father were always together,” Merly explained, adding, “His father was always present. The only thing I want is justice since he was always with his father, and his father promised he would never leave his son, and then this occurred.
The brothers traveled to New York City from Peru in large part to offer a better life for Leider’s son, according to Gilber Vasquez, who attended the initial party with the brothers and departed before the violence broke out.
“They were looking for a good life for their son.” “To help his mother,” he explained. “They were good people.” They worked hard for their son. Usually, they don’t attend parties.”
According to the family, the brothers worked in construction.
Vasquez said that the siblings’ mother in Peru had received news of their sons’ deaths.
“They were happy. They enjoyed playing soccer. “His mother lost her only two children,” Vasquez explained.
It’s unclear how the violence began, but Vasquez claimed he subsequently learned they were supposedly defending a woman who was being harassed.
Neighbors believe the murder was linked to a late-night party at a nearby company with no name on the awning and a sign reading “drink mix y nutrition” in the window. They stated that inebriated, noisy parties usually plague the street.
“The police were over here. “Everyone was crying last night,” claimed one neighbor, Espirit, who is 47.
“I want them to conduct an investigation,” Merly insisted. “They left our entire family distraught. Our entire family is deeply affected, and they are all filled with heartbreak. They took too many nice, innocent people, and one of them has a child. I want those responsible for this to go to jail.
There have been no arrests thus far.
The assassination occurred just feet from where Jesus Garcia-Desiderio, a 46-year-old father of two, was beaten to death in February.
Garcia-Desiderio clashed with Alejandro Gonzalez, 23, and another guy in front of a restaurant around 4:40 a.m. on February 17, according to police. Garcia-Desiderio died three days later in Jacobi Medical Center.
Three months later, police apprehended Gonzalez in Bristol, Connecticut, and returned him to the Bronx to face manslaughter and other charges in June.
Gonzalez remains on Rikers Island while awaiting trial.