Sandor Szabo (Facebook)
Aug. 8, 2018 By Tara Law
The 35-year-old Florida resident who was critically injured after being punched in Long Island CIty Sunday has died.
Boca Raton resident Sandor Szabo, 35, died at 2:52 p.m. yesterday at Cornell Hospital, police say.
Szabo was in New York for his step sister’s wedding, according to the New York Daily News. He was leaving his brother’s hotel at 1:15 a.m. on Sunday night when he approached a parked SUV near 41-10 29th St.
Szabo knocked on the window of the vehicle and the driver confronted him. The driver punched Szabo in the face, sending him crashing to the ground. Szabo slammed his head on the pavement and sustained a brain injury.
Police said that no one has been arrested for the incident. Szabo’s attacker is described as a bald, dark-skinned man. He was last seen wearing a light-colored long sleeved shirt and jeans.
Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
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19 Comments
The smells of society who prey on the law abiding taxpayers are springing up like weeds in long island city and the rest of nyc too.if nyc gave out more carry permits to responsible cited
Citizens then in 10 years or so the criminal elements would change their way of thinking and conduct themselves like the law abiding taxpayers.
https://nypost.com/2018/08/09/wake-forest-coach-sends-condolences-to-dead-tourists-family/
https://nypost.com/2018/08/09/wake-forest-basketball-coach-charged-in-deadly-queens-attack-on-tourist/
This guy just took another person’s life and threw away his own life over something idiotic. I hope he enjoys the next 20 years upstate staring at a wall while his best friend is hooking up with his girl.
Never do 20 years. When all is said and done probably one year and probation.
Deblasio will probably give him a pardon and make him a “violence interrupter”…
This story sounds very inconsistent. Knocking on someone’s window thinking its an Uber? Why not check the vehicle model and license? Very sad this man died, but what if he was being aggressive towards the driver? Why did he need to confront him?
Yea let’s blame the victim. I hope the next you accidentally bump into someone, they turn around and punch you in the face. DIRTBAG
Except that’s not what happened….
I don’t see anything inconsistent at all. The guy was visiting from out of state. He was celebrating a wedding and might have been drinking. He was not even at his own hotel. It was 1:00 am. Knocking on the window of a car that may have been the same make as his Uber is not unusual and not a crime. Just another senseless crime by an out of control animal who is a danger to the public and another example of why businesses like Uber and Airbnb need to have more regulation.
It is an absolute tragedy that this man lost his life. There are a few things about this story that don’t add up in my mind, though. According to the story, the incident happened at the corner of 29th Street and 41st Ave, which is a full block from either the Hilton Garden Inn or the Courtyard by Marriott (one of which was presumably where his brother was staying). It’s also on the back side of both hotels. If he had called an Uber, why wouldn’t he have met the driver in the front of the building at the main entrance? Also, the fact that he was “knocking on windows” to try and see which car was his ride makes zero sense to me. Even with my most drunken Uber rides, if the driver overshoots or undershoots my pickup location, I don’t just go banging on car windows to see which on is my driver. No matter what happened, it’s very sad that this man lost his life. I just don’t think we’ve been given the full story.
“..he approached a parked SUV near 41-10 29th St. Szabo knocked on the window of the vehicle and the driver confronted him. ”
Why does someone knock any anyone’s window at 1AM? It doesn’t seem to provide more details, was there an argument? Did they know each other? It looks like there was an eye witness if they know how he sustained the injury, or as much detail as him knocking on someone’s window.
I would start by requesting UBER to provide the drivers in the area at this time, 90% of Uber drivers have dashcams, if this black SUV wasn’t an Uber driver himself, I am sure it was caught by one of their dashcams. LIC is full of buildings with CCTV cams too although this area is more sketchy part of LIC.
There is a huge sign on 3 Leches Cake’s wall saying you are being recorded… Where is the footage?
What kind of animal reacts with such brutal behaviour towards a person knocking on their car window, no matter how intensely? Where does a person develop such violent reaction? I’m so concerned these days when accidentally bumping into anyone in the subway or in the streets.
They’re putting up all those luxury hotels in the Queens Plaza area and not telling the tourists that the Queens Plaza area of Long Island City is not a safe place at night.
Couple things –
First, it’s not the hotel’s job to tell tourists about whether the neighborhood is good or bad, that’s the tourists job to figure out before they stay there.
Second (and this is more subjective), I find that part of LIC to be just as safe/unsafe after 1am as anywhere else in the City. It’s a little more desolate than other areas, but I’ve never felt unsafe there. The fact is, if you’re out walking around that late anywhere in NYC, you need to use your smarts. I’ve walked from Qboro Plaza to my apartment near the 39th Ave N/W station in the early-morning hours plenty of times without incident. I keep myself aware of the surroundings and don’t go banging on car windows, and I’m fine.
So much dislike from LIC-Newcomers comment to capture the killer…So just as an experiment to cater to our criminal and illegal immigrant loving audiences (most of LIC), I will say “Let us ensure the guy who punched the visitor is provided with the absolute best legal representation whether he can afford it or not and please sign a petition to make sure his jail cell provides human rights commodity like a memory foam bed and tv privileges” <—There you go. I am certain this comment will get the most likes in LICpost history.
Paul- You’re an absolute phony. Grow up.
The surveillance cam footage is very good. Someone surely knows who did this. Come on everyone, we have to catch this killer – SHARE ON ALL YOUR SOCIAL NETWORKS. This was a despicable crime and all the more tragic that this poor victim was only here to enjoy our great city. LETS GET THE KILLER PUT AWAY FOR A LONG TIME WHERE HE NEEDS TO BE.
Even Deblasio can’t save this POS criminal. He’ll get caught and do 20 to life.