By Chaitram Aklu
On Tuesday February 9, at around 12:45 AM Modassar Khandaker arrived home from work at the John F. Kennedy Airport and as he got out of his car, one of two men waiting in a parked car got out and shot him once in the head, then ran back into the car which drove away, according to a witness.
The 36 year old man leaves a wife, a four year old son, a brother here in New York, and his parents (whom he supported in Bangladesh), lived opposite the MASJID-AL-AMAN on Forbell Street just off Liberty Avenue on the Brooklyn-Queens border.
He was shot once in the head and fell to the ground bleeding and was rushed to Jamaica Hospital where he was pronounced dead. No arrests have been made and no suspects have been named. Media reports state that the murder is being investigated as a possible hate crime.
According to reports a neighbor home security camera recorded two men sitting in a parked car at the time Khandaker exited his vehicle. They got out and one shot him. They ran back to the car which drove away.
The City Line area where the shooting happened has a high concentration of Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh. Within recent times four mosques have opened up within a few square blocks and Khandaker’s death is now the fifth killing in this tight knit community. Two Bangladeshi Imams, a Pakistani journalist and a Bangladeshi college student working as taxi driver to put himself through college, were killed in the area. The perpetrators of those killings have all been of other races.
On Friday a protest rally attended by hundreds of people, including some local politicians called for an end to the killings and gun violence.
According Police reports, 100 shootings occurred in January alone in New York City, a 32 percent increase compared to 76 shootings last year.
And CBS New York of February 7, 2022 reported, “The latest NYPD numbers show shooting victims are up 50% in the last month, and almost 32% compared to this time last year. In the month of January alone, the city saw 94 shooting incidents, compared to 71 in 2021.”
Posters in the area advertise a $3,500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction in relation to the shooting. Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD’s
Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). You can also submit a tip via their website https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or via DM on Twitter,@NYPDTips. All calls are kept confidential.
