Police have launched a homicide investigation into the death of a Staten Island man who was viciously mugged in Manhattan last month.
Giovanni Destafano, 27, was brutally beaten and robbed on Oct. 20 in front of the Lower East Side II Houses on East Fifth Street, law enforcement sources said.
According to police, an unidentified man approached Destafano from behind and punched him numerous times in the head and face, then removed the victim’s iPhone 7 phone from his pants pocket and fled.
Officers from the 9th Precinct and EMS units responded to a 911 call about the incident and found Destafano with swelling, bruising and lacerations to his head and mouth.
Paramedics brought him to Bellevue Hospital, where his condition took a turn for the worse. Destafano died at Bellevue on Nov. 10.
No arrests have been made at this time, and the investigation is ongoing.
