Family calls for justice after man dies from brutal beating in Brooklyn; suspect identified
DYKER HEIGHTS, Brooklyn (WABC) -- The heartbroken family of a man who was brutally beaten to death in an unprovoked attack in Brooklyn last week is calling for justice in hopes police will find the killer.
John Sarquiz, 55, gave up his career to take care of his ailing mother. Last week, as he ran an errand in their Dyker Heights neighborhood, a man jumped him and beat him to death.
"We're all kind of frantic right now, we don't honestly know if we're coming or going," the victim's sister Christina Sarquiz said.
She is trying to hold their family together after the brutal and unprovoked attack.
It happened on Wednesday, March 29, in front of a deli on 13th Avenue. Police say a man known as the neighborhood bully attacked him, with no provocation, in a vicious robbery.
"He punches the victim from behind," NYPD Detective Bureau Chief James Essig said. "The suspect then kicks him multiple times in the head rendering him unconscious. He removes money from his wallet and then throws the wallet back onto our victim."
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"From the moment he was hit was basically unconscious, hit the floor and was beaten until he was as good as dead," Sarquiz's sister said.
He would die in the hospital a few days later.
Police on Thursday identified the suspect as 45-year-old Phillip Meyers, a repeat violent offender who's well known in the neighborhood.
"My hope right now is that justice will be served, that detectives find the person they're looking for," Sarquiz's sister said. "I'm hoping for peace for my mother and our family and just to be surrounded by family and friends."
Police say Meyers, who also goes by the last name Mastrage, has already been arrested 17 times in his 45 years, including one time for murder. Now he's implicated in this murder.
Detectives hope anyone who knows where he is will give them a call.
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