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One of the construction workers who died in the Brooklyn building collapse was remembered as a “loving, very cheerful man” who was planning to marry the mother of his 3-year-old son during a memorial service in Queens Saturday night.
Around 300 people gathered in Corona to remember Gabriel Siguencia, 22, who was one of three construction workers killed alongside five other people after a three-story building in Brooklyn came crumbling down into an adjacent empty lot Wednesday afternoon.
“A very loving, very cheerful man, just as you see him in the video,” his grieving father Luis Siguencia told reporters in Spanish during the gathering at Alianza Ecuatoriana Internacional — a nonprofit community organization that supports Ecuadorian and Latin American immigrants.
“He was always smiling. He had so much love to give. He had many years of life still ahead of him.”
Siguencia, who lived in the Bronx, came to the US legally less than two years ago from Ecuador where his girlfriend and 3-year-old son remain and had only been working for the construction company for a week before he was killed.
“He was working to save up money, to get married, have his child baptized, and bring them here because he didn’t want them to go through the same process he went through when I came here,” the devastated father said.
“He didn’t want to leave his son behind or have him end up alone, so that’s why he was working.”
The elder Siguencia had only seen his son a day before he was killed and remembers him lovingly telling him not to work the next day because he was feeling unwell.
More coverage on the deadly Brooklyn building collapse:
- Mom hospitalized after Brooklyn building collapse reveals terrifying moment the building crumbled
- Owner of collapsed Brooklyn building is a notorious slumlord, tax deadbeat who owes $450K debt
- Worker injured in Brooklyn building collapse alleges corners were cut at construction site: ‘Third-world stuff’
- Harrowing video shows inside view of moment Brooklyn building collapses, killing at least 8: report
“He said to me, ‘Dad, take care of yourself — go home and rest. Don’t work tomorrow, you need to look after your health,’” Luis recalled.
Luis said his son “gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek and said, ‘Dad, I love you. Go home and rest. Do you want me to take you? Are you sure you can drive?’”
“Yes, son, I’m fine,” Luis remembered saying Tuesday. “Those are the last words I remember from him.”
Siguencia was working at a neighboring construction site at 2625 Bedford Avenue when the building next door collapsed into a pile of debris, but his family is searching for answers as to why he was even working on that particular site.
“They weren’t supposed to be working on that building. It looks like that building had a lot of violations. We’re very confused as to why the construction was ongoing,” Kayla Chamborazado, Siguencia’s stepsister, previously told The Post.
Siguencia’s father, who also lives in the Bronx, is now asking for “justice to be served.”
“I would hold the city and the companies responsible for my son’s death,” Luis said. “What I am asking for is justice for my son and for everyone who was working at that construction site.”
His heartbroken mother, Maria Yupa, added, “First and foremost, I ask God to give me the strength to keep going.”
“I also call upon the authorities to ensure that justice is served for my son’s death — my son was killed,” she said.
