Funeral held for boxer ‘Macho’ Camacho in NYC
12/1/2012NEW YORK — Hundreds mourned Hector Camacho on Saturday in the stately East Harlem church the fighter attended as a boy, and hundreds more cheered and shouted “Macho” when his coffin was carried out and loaded into a hearse afterward.
The Rev. Frank Skelly remembered Camacho as a child and said that's how God knows him.
Camacho, a native of Puerto Rico, was shot in the face Nov. 20 while sitting in a parked car with a friend outside a bar in Bayamon, his hometown in the U.S. territory. The friend, Adrian Mojica Moreno, died at the scene and the boxer died after doctors removed him from life support.
Police have said they have suspects but have not yet arrested anyone for the shooting.
Camacho, who was 50 when he died, moved to New York as a child.
Known for his flamboyant displays in the ring, he won super lightweight, lightweight and junior welterweight world titles in the 1980s and fought high-profile bouts against Felix Trinidad, Julio Cesar Chavez and Sugar Ray Leonard. He had a career record of 79-6-3.
St. Cecilia's Roman Catholic Church was about half-filled some 300 mourners for Saturday's funeral. Hundreds more waited behind police barricades across the street and cheered the coffin.
Camacho was to be buried after the service at St. Raymond's Cemetery in the Bronx.
The funeral capped two days of mourning in Spanish Harlem, the neighborhood where the slain former world champion fighter grew up.
On Friday, hundreds of fans turned out for the public wake and watched as a carriage drawn by white horses carried Camacho's body through the streets.