Catalina Baez said Leonides, who was killed in an attack on May 4, had been traveling across the country; initial reports indicated that he had been homeless at the time of his death. She disputes that account, stating that he was a happy wanderer with one goal in mind.
“He had a home. He had a couple of homes. He was a free guy, he was a wanderer. He was living his Bob Marley life. He was making his way to Florida, he just wanted to put his feet in the ocean,” she said.
Times Square was supposed to be one stop on her brother’s journey, Catalina Baez told amNewYork; it turned out to be his last.
“New York is the city that never sleeps, and he decided to go to sleep in Times Square and never woke up,” Catalina Baez told amNewYork.
Baez said her brother loved to go on trips across the country and would make ends meet by doing odd jobs and performing runs for DoorDash.
Leonides Baez was asleep on West 43rd Street near 7th Avenue around 11:30 p.m. on May 4 when cops say 17-year-old Jayden Sanchez allegedly was following a “mess-with-a-crackhead” TikTok craze and began harassing him.
Things quickly escalated, and Sanchez allegedly stabbed Leonides Baez to death.
Sanchez was arrested two days later when he was spotted hopping a turnstile on Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station at about 8 p.m. on May 6. He was found in possession of a scalpel.
Catalina Baez, who lives in Massachusetts, traveled to the Big Apple last week for Sanchez’s arraignment.
“I saw his face, and how young he was; my mouth dropped,” she recalled. “He is somebody who didn’t have structure, who clearly didn’t have anybody around to guide him, you know, because for somebody 17-years-old to do something like that, that’s crazy.”
“It’s a lot, it’s really devastating because it’s something that you can’t just forget about, because it’s a homicide,” Catalina Baez added.
Still reeling from the murder of her brother, she started a fundraiser to bring his body back to their home state, where she says he will be cremated. From there, she hopes to use the funds to fulfill his last wish and take his ashes on a road trip, spreading them along the way until they reach the ocean in Florida.
“Some of his ashes are going to be buried with our mom. And then the other half is going to his kids. And then the remaining, we’re gonna take that adventure that he was already planning on doing. So, we’re gonna spread his ashes, come from Massachusetts all the way down to Florida, and then from Florida all the way down to Cali,” Baez said.
