UES Restaurant Worker Dies Weeks After Bike Attack, Family Seeks Funds

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — An Upper East Side restaurant is reeling from the loss of a beloved employee who was attacked while biking home from his shift last month — then died after spending weeks in a coma.

Tiburcio Castillo, 37, had spent about six months working as a busboy and server at Quatorze, the popular bistro on First Avenue and East 82nd Street. Known around the restaurant as "Tibo," Castillo "always, always had a smile on his face," said Alex McNeice, Quatorze's managing partner.

"Never a problem, never a complaint," McNeice told Patch. "He was really just one of the sweetest people."

Early in the morning of June 29, Castillo was riding his e-bike home to the South Bronx after finishing a shift. According to NY1 Noticias, Castillo was then ambushed on the Willis Avenue Bridge — a notorious crossing where delivery cyclists are routinely attacked by robbers seeking their valuable bikes.

Castillo never returned home, and did not show up for his restaurant shift the next day. After days of frantic searching, his family found him days later at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx — Castillo was in a coma, having been physically assaulted while the unknown assailant stole his bike.

After 14 days, Castillo's heart stopped early Tuesday, NY1 Noticias reported. (Police were unable to confirm any details of Castillo's assault.)

Castillo leaves behind a wife and four children, between four and 14 years old, McNeice said. Originally from Mexico, Castillo had devoted himself to providing for his family, working six days a week to earn more money — and managing to get his brother and a cousin hired at Quatorze as well.

McNeice has now launched an online fundraiser seeking to raise $25,000 to support Castillo's surviving relatives — and to help them return his body to his home country. The restaurant will also donate all proceeds from the upcoming Friday dinner service to the family.

"He was the sole breadwinner," McNeice told Patch, describing Castillo's family. "I know they’re very scared. They don’t know what they’re going to do right now."

The city's immigrant restaurant workers have long demanded better protection from police, and even organized their own safety patrols on the Willis Avenue Bridge.

For McNeice, Castillo's death drives home the paltry protections that the city affords some of its hardest-working residents.

"It blows my mind that there’s been multiple attacks on this same bridge and we can’t get police to patrol it," he said. "Immigrants are the backbone of this city. I feel like they have less protections than the rest of us."

Find the fundraiser for Tiburcio Castillo's family here.