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Police Release Sketch Of Suspect In Assault That Left Man Dead In Queens

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police on Thursday released a sketch of a suspect in an attack that left a 56-year-old man dead in Woodside, Queens.

Roberto Martines, 56, was pronounced dead at Elmhurst Hospital Center on June 24, three days after he was attacked, police said.

Residents in Woodside said Martines, who lived nearby, was leaving a restaurant on the corner of 69th Street and Roosevelt Avenue in Queens when he was attacked.

Just after midnight June 21, a man walked up to him and punched him in the face, police said.

"Immediately he punched him at his face, and he fell down and crushed his head here," Benjamin Ytac, a friend of the victim, said last month.

People in the neighborhood claim someone asked Martines, "Are you Filipino?" before attacking him, but police told CBS 2's Dick Brennan last month that they know nothing of that, and are not investigating the incident as a hate crime.

The suspect is described in the latest account as a Hispanic male about 30 years old, standing 5 feet 6 to 5 feet 7 inches tall, with facial hair. He was last seen wearing a white T-shirt, blue jeans and a dark baseball cap.

The sketch showed the suspect with a Chicago White Sox cap.

Area residents told Stern the attacker may have just stepped out of a bar, 1010 WINS' Roger Stern reported last month.

Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS. The public can also submit their tips to the Crime Stoppers website or texting 274637(CRIMES) then entering TIP577.

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