Empire State Building Shooting Victim's Latina Girlfriend Mourns His Death

A New York Police Department officer places markers denoting spent shell casings in front of a sheet covering a body on 5th Ave after a shooting at the Empire State Building in New York August 24, 2012. (Photo : Reuters)

Ivette Rivera lived a happy life with boyfriend of eight years Steve Ercolino before he was fatally shot by a disgruntled former co-worker on Friday. Ercolino, 41, was shot five times in the head by Jeffrey Johnson, 58, early Friday as he made his way to work near the Empire State Building, police said.

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Rivera, a 38-year-old Latina from the Bronx, met Ercolino through her mother eight years ago. The two shared a condo in Hoboken, N.J., reported NY Daily News, and were planning on getting married.

Ercolino's brother Paul told the Daily News, "They always wanted to get married. He didn't have a ring, I don't think."  

According to the paper, the couple did everything together and recently came home from a vacation in Cancun, Mexico.

"She was the love of his life," Ercolino's cousin, Anne Flugmacher, 56, told the Daily News.

Rivera, was devastated by the news of her boyfriend's death and was bed-ridden her brother, Walter Rivera told the NY Post. "She's destroyed," he said.

Ercolino and his shooter were known to have a history of animosity and had both filed police complaints against each other in the past. Johnson blamed Ercolino for his loss of employment at Hazan Imports, where Ercolino was vice president. He shot Ercolino five times before being shot and killed by New York Police.

Family members flew to New York to console Rivera, Fox News Latino reported. According to the NY Post, Ercolino's funeral is scheduled for Wednesday in White Plains, N.Y. and will be cremated late that day.

Rivera's brother told the Post, "It was like everything was great, it was beautiful. She had found something that had changed her whole life for the better, and now it was taken away."