Logo

The devastated wife of Queens state Sen. José Peralta was searching for answers Thanksgiving morning as she tried to make sense of her husband’s sudden death.

“We really don’t know what happened,” Evelyn Peralta told reporters at her home in Jackson Heights. “He had fever, took him in [to the hospital]. He just took a turn for the worst.”

Peralta, who represented a Queens district that included diverse neighborhoods such as Corona, Elmhurst, Jackson Heights and Woodside, died late Wednesday night at the age of 47.

His wife said that the politician first developed the fever on Tuesday and that the family had planned to spend Thanksgiving at Evelyn’s sister’s house in New Jersey.

“He was complaining of pressure in his head and shortness of breath, but he went to the doctor and they didn’t find anything, everything was normal,” Evelyn said. “And [Tuesday], he developed a fever.”

On Wednesday, Evelyn said that Peralta “couldn’t breathe, and then all of a sudden he stopped.”

“He started mumbling and I knew something was wrong,” she said of her husband, adding that the family then called an ambulance.

Peralta leaves behind Evelyn, their 13-year-old son Myles and his 21-year-old son Matthew from a previous relationship.

“He was with us,” Evelyn said, referring to Myles. “He’s a kid, so it hasn’t hit him that bad yet. I don’t know how he’s going to feel after this.”

Evelyn noted that Myles was “close to his dad. He loved his dad,” as she called her husband “a good father” and “a good husband.”

“He was a good guy,” she said. “A lot of people knew him. They appreciated what he did for the community,”

In March 2010, Peralta made history as was the first Dominican-American elected to the New York Senate.

“It was his time,” Evelyn said, before dolefully noting, “We’re all going to be sad for a while.”

The family is awaiting autopsy results from the city Medical Examiner’s Office.

“They said it could be meningitis, but they don’t know until they get the results,” she said, adding that Peralta had developed “a very bad infection.”

“He had fever. That was the first indication that something was wrong,” she said. “He pretty much stopped breathing. He had fluid in his lungs. He had difficulty breathing, and without oxygen.”

Evelyn said she did not known what the infection stemmed from.

“Even the hospital was surprised about what happened,” she said.

She said Peralta had experienced “pressure behind his ears.”

“He thought it was maybe an ear infection or something in his ear that was bothering him for a while, at least a week,” she said. “He started to get headaches. He was taking Tylenol, because they gave him Tylenol. They said it could be sinus-related.”

Gov. Cuomo, in a statement Thursday, called him “a dedicated public servant, a relentless advocate for Queens and a pioneer as the first Dominican-American elected to the New York State Senate.”

Comments
anonymous profile image
Powered by RoundtableBuilt on infrastructure designed for real-time media. Learn more at RTB.io.© Roundtable 2026. By using this site you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy