Murdered Bronx teen Lesandro 'Junior' Guzman-Feliz laid to rest in tearful funeral service as community calls for justice

More than a thousand mourners packed into Our Lady Mt. Carmel church in the Belmont section of the Bronx Wednesday morning to pay their respects to Lesandro 'Junior' Guzman-Feliz — the 15-year-old boy who was mistakenly attacked by a machete-wielding gang last week.

The funeral procession made its way from Ortiz Funeral Home on Grand Concourse and E.192nd St. toward the 187th St. church at 9:30 a.m.

Guzman-Feliz’s family packed the first five pews. Fellow cadets of the innocent victim’s NYPD Law Enforcement Explorers attended the funeral in uniform with tears streaming down many of their faces.

Guzman-Feliz’s body laid in a closed casket, draped in a white sheet, at the alter. His father Lisandro Guzman served as a pallbearer.

Mourners wore t-shirts with photos of Junior on them with messages like, “Forever 15.”

“Again and again, we have gone through so many tragedies in this country and in the Bronx,” Father David Guzman told the congregation.

He urged young people to take a stand against the kind of violence that saw a group of at least a half-dozen men brutalize Guzman-Feliz, first attacking him in a bodega, then dragging him onto the street where they beat and stabbed him in plain sight — a horrific act of violence that was captured on video.

“As we say in New York, if you see something, say something — don’t just take the video, do something,” the priest continued.

Toward the end of the ceremony churchgoers started a chant of “Justice for Junior.”

Near Junior’s home, hundreds of community members gathered outside the deli where he was attacked and more outside St.Barnabas Hospital, where he staggered towards the emergency room bleeding to death.

Young men close in age to Junior expressed heartbreak and rage that one of their peers met such a tragic, unnecesssary fate.

“They need to do more for the Bronx. They did stuff for Queens, they did stuff for Brooklyn, they did stuff for Manhattan,” said Mark Perez, 17. “Why is there no love? Why is there no purpose for us? We just get shafted all the time. You’re doing nothing for these kids, but feeding them to the streets.”

So far, eight men have been charged in Guzman-Feliz’s murder. It’s believed that they mistook him for an unidentified man who appeared in a sex tape involving one of the attacker’s relatives.