{"id":7174,"date":"2025-10-18T01:09:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T01:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/7174\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T01:09:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T01:09:08","slug":"wake-held-for-nicola-tanzi-in-brooklyn-after-he-was-killed-madman-in-fatal-beatdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/7174\/","title":{"rendered":"Wake held for Nicola Tanzi in Brooklyn after he was killed madman in fatal beatdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

A beloved Italian churchgoer who was ruthlessly beaten to death<\/a> outside a Brooklyn subway station was remembered for his kindness, cheerful laugh and unwavering faith, as more than 100 family members and friends gathered Friday night to honor his life.<\/p>\n

Nicola Tanzi, 64, was killed on Oct. 7 when a recidivist psycho savagely attacked him for no reason<\/a> as the devout Catholic held a door open at the Jay Street-MetroTech Station \u2013 near where he had worked as a security guard for 15 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJust a wonderful, caring, human being,\u201d David Tanzi said of his uncle during a somber wake held at Andrew Torregrossa & Sons Funeral Home in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

Nicola Tanzi, 64, was killed on Oct. 7 by a recidivist psycho at the Jay Street-MetroTech Station. Robert Mecea<\/p>\n

\u201c[He] would do anything for anybody and his faith. He had an infectious laugh. I think if you asked anybody that had met him, that would remind anybody of him now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Italian-born victim moved to New York City decades ago, living a quiet and simple life in Bensonhurst \u2014 without a cell phone or email \u2014 working as a MetroTech public safety officer and volunteering at his local churches. <\/p>\n

A devoted parishioner at St. Dominic\u2019s Church who was also active at Sacred Hearts of Mary and Jesus & St. Stephen Roman Catholic Church in Carroll Gardens, Tanzi is survived by his five brothers. <\/p>\n

More than 100 mourners gathered at the Torregrossa Funeral Home in Brooklyn Friday night for Tanzi\u2019s wake. Robert Mecea<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a simple guy,\u201d Tanzi\u2019s devastated younger brother Anthony told The Post, noting that his slain sibling had planned to retire in June and relocate to Long Island. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe never had an email, he never had a cell phone. That\u2019s the way he liked it. He was involved in a lot of things\u2026a lot more things than I\u2019d ever do. He decided he was going to retire\u2026to come out to Long Island and do all the things we used to do as kids. He never go the chance. He was robbed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tanzi was cremated before the solemn wake, with his urn placed at the front of the chapel, surrounded by a sea of flowers and photos. <\/p>\n

Tanzi was remembered as a devout Catholic who volunteered at his local churches. Facebook\/john.l.heyer<\/p>\n

Richard Ravaloi, who met Tanzi in junior high when they were both 15, sobbed as he described one of his closest friends \u2014 a \u201cnice guy\u201d who he said didn\u2019t deserve the \u201csenseless\u201d beatdown that ended his life. <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cNicky was always in a good mood, laughing and joking,\u201d Ravaloi said. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was just a nice guy, you know. He\u2019d never hurt anybody. He was just nice to be around. He was never in a bad mood. He went to work, and back everyday from that subway station. To have something like that happen, and the way that it did, he didn\u2019t deserve that.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Mazariegos, 25, was charged with first-degree murder for the merciless, unprovoked attack. Steven Hirsch<\/p>\n

David Mazariegos, 25, was charged with first-degree murder for the merciless attack. <\/a><\/p>\n

Prosecutors said the brute, who has five open criminal cases, sucker-punched the Italian immigrant twice in the face,<\/a> knocking him to the floor, before reportedly kicking his face and body even after Tanzi was completely unconscious. <\/p>\n

Tanzi \u2014 who died hours later \u2014 suffered a skull fracture, a crushed nasal bone, and multiple other facial injuries.<\/p>\n

The crazed attacker allegedly confessed that he resented having a door held open for him, boasting to police that he took Tanzi\u2019s \u201cspirit\u201d<\/a> because he didn\u2019t like the way he looked at him, prosecutors said. <\/p>\n

Mazariegos is being held at Rikers Island without bail. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A beloved Italian churchgoer who was ruthlessly beaten to death outside a Brooklyn subway station was remembered for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,303,57,141,238,9,24,63,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-7174","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-crime","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-mta","14":"tag-murders","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}