Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

IT Worker Fatally Shot Near His Home in Jamaica, Police Say

By  Aidan Gardiner Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska and Murray Weiss | March 11, 2014 8:17am | Updated on March 11, 2014 1:48pm

 Police officers canvass the scene of a shooting that occured at 173 Street and 105 Avenue in Jamaica on March 11, 2014.
Police officers canvass the scene of a shooting that occured at 173 Street and 105 Avenue in Jamaica on March 11, 2014.
View Full Caption
DNAinfo/Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska

QUEENS — A "very giving" IT specialist who was on his way home from work was fatally shot about half a block from his front door in Jamaica early Tuesday morning, police said.

Mohamed Hamwi, 48, was shot three times — in the head, torso and armpit — at the corner of 173rd Street and 105th Avenue about midnight, police sources said.

The victim, an immigrant from Canada who was originally from Syria, was on his way from work at the Madison Avenue-based financial analytics firm Trepp, where he was employed as an IT specialist, said Zona, a relative who did not want her full name used.

Hamwi, she said, had moved into her house about two-and-a-half years ago and married her son last year.

Police sources said that the victim, who had just walked from the Jamaica Long Island Rail Road station, was holding his phone in his hand when the shooting occurred.

The motive for the crime was not clear, but investigators said that the victim did not appear to be robbed because the victim still had his wallet and cellphone after the shooting.

Kyrillos Davidson, 18, who lives nearby, said that he heard four gunshots. When he went to a window in his house, he saw the victim lying there.

"He didn't have any enemies," Zona said. "He was a very nice person, very giving."

When detectives came to their house around 1:30 a.m., "they said that Mohamed was injured just down the road, and was taken to the hospital. I was very upset."

She said five minutes later detectives returned to tell her that Hamwi had died.

Hamwi was taken to Queens General Hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.

Zona said that Hamwi was originally from Syria, but had Canadian citizenship and a permit to work in the U.S.

When she went to identify his body at the hospital, "he looked like he was sleeping," she said. 

Zona added that Hamwi would start his work around noon and finish between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. She said that even at that hour, he liked to walk home from the train, located several blocks away.

"He was a geek," she said. "He goes to work and comes home and he is on his computer."

No one had been arrested by Tuesday morning.