Updated 08/30/2012 01:16 AM
Mourners Bid Tearful Goodbye To Man Shot Near Empire State Building
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A funeral was held in Westchester Wednesday morning for the Manhattan sales executive gunned down near the Empire State Building last week.
Mourners packed the Our Lady of Sorrows church in White Plains, N.Y. to say goodbye to 41-year-old Steve Ercolino.
Steven Ercolino. Click to enlarge.
A police escort accompanied Ercolino's coffin from the funeral home to the church.
Ercolino's sister delivered a eulogy at the service, standing by her two surviving brothers, said the death of Steven left "a hole in the family."
Ercolino was shot in the head Friday morning by a disgruntled former co-worker.
Jeffrey Johnson, 58, blamed Ercolino for being laid off last year.
Officers shot and killed Johnson after he pointed a gun at them shortly after the shooting.
Nine bystanders were also injured by gunfire.
Family and friends remembered Ercolino Monday and Tuesday night during a wake.
Carol Silva, whose husband works in the Empire State Building, told NY1 she felt an obligation to attend Wednesday's funeral.
"The reason I'm here to attend this funeral service is out of respect and to pay respects, and to show gratitude that my husband's life was not taken," Silva said. "And you talk about fate, you know, 'right place, right time, wrong place wrong time,' we're very grateful and I'm just so sad for this whole family and the whole situation. It's pathetic that everybody has guns and that they shoot at will."
"He was filled with just love, ambition, love of life, and he had the most beautiful smile," recalled Ercolino's friend, Andrea Longueria.
Ercolino's sister noted that the family was not broken and will live each of their days honoring his spirit by living life as he did. She asked everyone on hand to do the same.