A beloved music-school administrator is clinging to life after being beaten in Queens by a stick-wielding thug.
Lou Rispoli, 62, a longtime Sunnyside resident who works at the Greenwich House Music School in the West Village, was on life support after the attack early Saturday.
Friends said that Rispoli is an insomniac who likes to take long walks at night and that he had left his home around midnight.
A witness spotted two men talking to him at about 2:15 a.m. along 43rd Avenue near 42nd Street and saw one strike him in the head, authorities said. A third man may have acted as a lookout.
EMS rushed Rispoli to Elmhurst Hospital in very critical condition. He is not expected to survive.
“This is a tragedy for our community and our city and everyone who knew Lou Rispoli,” said Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, a friend. “It is difficult enough to know that we have lost Lou. It is impossible to believe that the people who do this would get away with it.”
Rispoli lived with his husband. The two have been together for more than 30 years.
It’s just senseless,” said friend Eric Lehman, 58.
Police said the assault was not classified as a bias crime. Nothing was stolen. No arrests have been made.