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CBS2 Exclusive: Family Remembers Queens Sucker Punch Victim 'He Was The Best Man I Knew'

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The NYPD is looking for a killer who walked up to a stranger and punched him for apparently no reason.

Authorities are looking for two suspects in connection with the sucker punch attack of a Queens man just after midnight on June 26th. His family says he had taken a bus home after attending a Baltimore Orioles game.

Patrick Gorman
Patrick Gorman (Kearns Funeral Home)

The NYPD released new surveillance video Wednesday of the assault, which police said happened outside 64-year-old Patrick Gorman's home on the corner of Queens Boulevard and Main Street just after midnight on June 26.

In the video, police said a man can be seen approaching Gorman and punching him in the head, knocking him to the ground. The man is then joined by a woman and calmly walks away as Gorman is seen struggling to get up.

Gorman was taken to Jamaica Hospital, where he died nine hours later after suffering a stroke and brain hemorrhage. Police said this was an accidental encounter that ended in the punch and that the victim did not know his attacker, CBS2's Magdalena Doris reported.

CBS2's Jennifer McLogan spoke exclusively with Gorman's family on Wednesday.

"Pat was not the type of person to hurt a fly. To see that, nobody deserves to be treated like that," his sister-in-law Denise Gorman said.

Gorman's obituary described him as a brother and uncle and a sports fanatic.

"He was my godfather, he was the best man I knew -- loved baseball and love his family," Jennifer Gorman Palilla said.

Gorman had been doing what he always did on Sunday afternoons in the summer -- traveled to a Major League Baseball game.

"When my uncle went to baseball games he would always find a church for Sunday mass," Gorman Palilla said.

The deeply religious man -- a member of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs in Forest Hills -- had just returned from the game when he was sucker punched near his apartment.

"It looks like they are laughing it off," Gorman Palilla said of the surveillance footage.

Gorman was beloved at the Lighthouse Guild For The Blind In Manhattan where he worked for 25 years. His colleagues and Mets friends all came to his funeral.

"Everybody just loved him -- to see a man's life end so unexpectedly for no reason is just heartbreaking," Gorman Palilla said.

The medical examiner is still working to determine the exact cause of his death.

Queens Sucker Punch Attack Suspects
Surveillance image of two suspects who police say are wanted in connection with a sucker punch attack in Queens on June 26, 2016 on a man who later died. (credit: NYPD)

Neighbors are shocked by the video.

"You see it on TV and it happens everywhere else and you never think it's going to happen right on the corner where you live," Briarwood resident Inez Almada said.

"Maybe he would not have died if he had immediate help," another Briarwood resident said. "It's not only that he was sucker punched, but it's the people that didn't come intervene right away."

"They need to get these people off the streets I know that," said the victim's neighbor, Frank Harris.

Police described the first suspect as a black man in his 30s with short hair. He was seen wearing a white T-shirt, black shorts, sneakers and was holding a black bag.

Investigators believe the woman is his girlfriend. She was described as having short hair with glasses and was seen wearing a white T-shirt, jeans and sandals.

Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782) www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or text tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.

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