Jose Sucuzhanay died late Friday at Elmurst Hospital as his mother was en route from Ecuador to see him, spokesman Francisco Moya said. Sucuzhanay, a 31-year-old real estate broker, had been listed in critical condition since the assault early Dec. 7.

Police were searching for three suspects in the attack. The New York Police Department’s hate crime task force is investigating what prosecutors have called an appalling eruption of bigotry.

Sucuzhanay (suh-KOO-chen-eye) and his brother Romel, 38, were walking arm-in-arm after a night out when a sport utility vehicle pulled up near them at a Brooklyn stoplight, police said.

Witnesses said they heard the men in the car shouting anti-gay and anti-Hispanic slurs at the brothers. The attackers jumped out of the car and smashed a beer bottle over Jose Sucuzhanay’s head, hit him in the head with an aluminum baseball bat and kicked him, police said. Romel Sucuzhanay was able to get away; the attackers drove off after he returned and said he had called police, authorities said.

His mother, Julia Quintuna, obtained a humanitarian visa late this week to visit her injured son. She landed Saturday only to learn that he had died, Moya said.

“There can be no viler act, apart from homosexuality and sodomy, than sexually abusing innocent children,” Ulster Democratic Unionist Party MP Iris Robinson said during a debate in the House.

Then in a radio interview, Robinson said that homosexuality is “disgusting, loathsome, nauseating, wicked and vile.”

She also offered to put gays and lesbians with Dr. Paul Miller, a controversial psychiatrist who claims he can make them straight.

In addition to serving in the British Parliament, she is a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Her husband, Peter Robinson, is leader of the regional government in Northern Ireland.

The remarks drew sharp criticism from LGBT groups and other politicians in both Belfast and London. Robinson has refused to apologize, but Dr. Miller has since resigned as a part-time adviser for the Ulster Democratic Unionist Party.

Demands for a public rebuke of Robinson were posted on Brown’s Prime Ministerial Web site, growing to more than 15,000 calls for her to be censured.

But Thursday, Brown’s office said there is no provision constitutionally for the Prime Minister to rebuke a Member of Parliament.

“[Individual members] are accountable to their electorate for their own comments,” the Prime Minister’s office said in a statement.

“The government’s vision is an equal, inclusive society in Northern Ireland, where everyone is treated with respect and where opportunity for all remains a priority,” it said.

Nike previously defended the ads, but said it would withdraw them as quickly as possible “to underline our ongoing commitment to supporting diversity in sport and the workplace,” The Oregonian reported.

The ads were created by Portland’s Wieden+Kennedy agency and titled “That Ain’t Right,” “Isn’t That Cute,” and “Punks Jump Up.”

One ad showed a basketball player dunking over another. The crotch of the player dunking was planted firmly in the other player’s face. The ad sported a large tag line: “That Ain’t Right.”

Earlier, Nike had said the ads were “based purely upon a common insight from within the game of basketball – the athletic feat of dunking on the opposition, and is not intended to be offensive.”

Nike also reiterated its “history of supporting athletes regardless of their sexual orientation.” Nike has been praised by gay-rights advocates for supporting a 2007 Oregon law banning discrimination against gays in work, housing and public places.

An after hours call to Nike corporate communications rang unanswered Friday.