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NYPD: Bronx Dad Dies Days After Being Beaten For $15

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- As family members say goodbye to Bimal Chanda, neighbors are trying to make sense of the 59-year-old Bronx man's death.

"It was horrible," Mohammad Qazi told 1010 WINS' Al Jones. "It should never have happened."

CBS 2's Kathryn Brown reports the NYPD released surveillance video of the suspects early Thursday evening. They are wanted for allegedly beating the life out of Chanda, described by neighbors as a loving family man. He was attacked Saturday while moving out of his third-floor apartment at 30 West 190th St., where he had lived for more than 20 years.

"He was the best person in the world. He was the best person in the world," Chanda's distraught wife, Saya, told CBS 2's Sean Hennessey on Thursday night. "Somebody killed him. They killed my husband.

"Mayor Bloomberg and Mr. Kelly police commisioner, I want to ask them why my husband got killed so brutally."

1010 WINS' Al Jones reports: Neighbors Said This Is Not The First Attack Inside The Building

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Police said Chanda was coming home at around 9 a.m. after buying packing tape when two men followed him into the building and grabbed him from behind on the second-floor stair case.

Police said one of the suspects struck Chanda in the head with a metal object while the other stole $15 from him.

Chanda's best friend and neighbor, Clayton Inoa, was awakened by the terrified screams of Chanda's wife.

"Somebody knock on the door boom, boom, boom and cry 'Ahhh! Oh my God! Bimal's in the floor second floor. Somebody hit him in the head he is bleeding!'" Inoa told CBS 2's Brown.

"I saw just the one guy who was running and I saw my husband was laying down in the second floor. They brutally killed my husband. I don't know why they killed my husband," Saya Chanda told Hennessey.

Inoa said he and other neighbors frantically called police and an ambulance.

"The head was ... a lot of blood," he said.

Chanda was rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries Wednesday morning. He left behind a wife and teenage daughter.

"She was distraught. She didn't know what to do. It was sad," neighbor Elaine Medina told Brown.

The brutal crime has left neighbors and friends stunned and outraged.

"His whole family, they're all very sweet, very nice, very respectful. They're very good people," Medina said.

"I was shocked when I knew about it and I'm afraid that it could happen to me," neighbor Rachel Taveras said.

"I am constantly looking over my shoulder," Osvaldo Delabra added. "Sometimes you're even afraid if somebody's coming into the building right behind."

The surveillance video the police are using was taken from a camera mounted on a nearby building, but residents said their building needs more security and hope the pictures will be the lucky break police need to catch the attackers.

Bimal Chanda's funeral was held Thursday. Neighbors held a candlelight vigil outside the apartment building.

"I cannot believe it he's not in the world anymore," friend Mohammed Ali said.

Others mourned the former cabbie's unfinished business.

"He always wanted to teach the kids about our culture and religion. That's what basically his plan was," Hridita Saha said.

Police are asking anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-8477.

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