Jose Sucuzhanay, 31, 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.

Neither brother is gay, but the perception that Jose Sucuzhanay was has fueled calls for passage of the Shepard Act early in the new Congress.

“We have learned the tragic lesson of history that words matter and indifference matters even more,” said Rep. Steve Israel at a news conference.  Israel was joined by NYS assemblyman Philip Ramos and Suffolk legislator Ricardo Montano.

The Matthew Shepard Hate Crime Act was named for the 21-year-old college student who was murdered in an anti-gay hate crime in Wyoming in October 1998. It would add sexual orientation to the list of categories covered under federal hate crime law.

The bill passed the House in 2007 and the White House threatened to veto it. In an effort to get around a veto the Senate version was tied to the 2008 defense authorization bill. It passed, but then went to conference where it was stripped out.

President-elect Barrack Obama and his Attorney General-designate, Eric Holder, support passage of the Shepard Act, also known as the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

In 1997, Holder was appointed deputy attorney general by President Clinton. In 1999, Holder appeared before the House Judiciary Committee Holder calling for LGBT inclusion in federal hate crime law, noting that currently the law “provides no coverage whatsoever for violent hate crimes committed because of bias based on the victim’s sexual orientation, gender or disability, and these crimes pose a serious problem for our nation.”

The number of reported attacks against LGBT people across the country increased 24 percent in 2007 over 2006, and they were expected to jump in 2008 when the final figures are in, Sharon Stapel, executive director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project said earlier this week.

In February, Lawrence King, a 15-year-old Los Angeles boy who endured harassment after telling classmates he was gay, was shot and killed by a classmate.

Other incidents include the discovery of Angie Zapata’s body in July in her apartment in Greeley, Colo. Zapata, 18, was a transgender woman. Police have charged a man with murder as a hate crime in her death.

In June, a surveillance tape was publicized showing Memphis, Tenn., police officers beating Duanna Johnson, a transgendered woman, and shouting slurs in a jail booking area; a public outcry erupted. Johnson was found fatally shot on a Memphis street in November.

Also in New York City, police arrested four teenagers on charges of assaulting a priest outside a shelter he ran for homeless transgender youths in July. Witnesses said the four teens had harassed and taunted residents with homophobic slurs and insults before the assault.

The number of reported attacks against LGBT people increased 24 percent in 2007 over 2006, and they were expected to jump in 2008, said Sharon Stapel, executive director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project.

Officials were still crunching the 2008 figures, which will be released next spring, Stapel said.

The baseball bat murder of Ecuadorean immigrant Jose Sucuzhanay in New York on Sunday was the latest in a number of reported assaults, said the project, which coordinates organizations that document violence against LGBT and HIV-positive people. The attack left Sucuzhanay, 31, brain dead.

Since the February fatal shooting of Lawrence King, a 15-year-old Los Angeles boy who endured harassment after telling classmates he was gay, “we are witnessing what appears to be an increase in both the occurrence and severity of violence motivated by racism, homophobia, and transphobia,” said Stapel.

Stapel attributed the increase in part to more people reporting incidents, but she believed there actually could have been more assaults because 2008 was an election year.

“Election years are always violent years for us because of wedge issues,” Stapel said, referring to ballot measures this year banning gay marriage in California and Florida. “With increased visibility comes increased vulnerability to LGBT stereotypes and violence. We’ve seen some of the most violent hate crimes that we’ve seen in a while.”

In the case of Lawrence King, one of his classmates was charged as an adult in the slaying, which prosecutors classified as a hate crime.

Other incidents include the discovery of Angie Zapata’s body in July in her apartment in Greeley, Colo. Zapata, 18, was a transgender woman. Police have charged a man with murder as a hate crime in her death.

In June, a surveillance tape was publicized showing Memphis, Tenn., police officers beating Duanna Johnson, a transgendered woman, and shouting slurs in a jail booking area; a public outcry erupted. Johnson was found fatally shot on a Memphis street in November.

Also in New York City, police arrested four teenagers on charges of assaulting a priest outside a shelter he ran for homeless transgender youths in July. Witnesses said the four teens had harassed and taunted residents with homophobic slurs and insults before the assault.

“I expect the number will increase from 2007 to 2008,” Stapel said. “I hope I’m wrong about that.”

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.

Jose Sucuzhanay, 31, was attacked early Sunday as he walked arm in arm with his 38-year-old brother in Brooklyn. He had been listed in critical condition after undergoing brain surgery at Elmhurst Hospital in neighboring Queens.

A law enforcement official told The Associated Press that Sucuzhanay had been declared brain dead and was taken off life support Tuesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

The three assailants were still being sought.

While it does not appear the men were targeted specifically for being Ecuadorean, members of the Latin American community said they feel vulnerable and must be vigilant about safety.

Police said Tuesday that the two brothers first attended a church party, then stopped at a bar. They may have been tipsy as they leaned on each other for support walking home.

Jose wore a tank top, Romel a T-shirt with a jacket tied over his shoulders. Arm in arm, they paused at a street corner where a sport utility vehicle was at a stoplight, police said.

Witnesses nearby said they heard the men in the car shouting anti-gay and anti-Hispanic slurs at the brothers. One attacker jumped out of the SUV and smashed a beer bottle over Jose Sucuzhanay’s head.

As Romel Sucuzhanay ran away, two other men exited the vehicle and joined the assault, police said. One hit Jose Sucuzhanay in the head with an aluminum baseball bat while the others kicked him, police said.

At some point, the brother returned holding a cell phone and announced he had called police. The attackers drove off, and Romel Sucuzhanay escaped uninjured.

Police, who revised their account of the crime Tuesday after initially saying there were four attackers, said robbery was not a motive. The office of Brooklyn prosecutor Charles Hynes and the New York Police Department’s hate crime task force were investigating. They urged the public to help identify the attackers.

The NYPD is offering a $22,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects.