Bangladeshi migrant shot and killed at New York pizza shop
Photo Collected
A 38-year-old Bangladeshi migrant, Mohammad Raju, was shot and killed during a robbery at a pizza shop in Brooklyn, New York, on Saturday night. Raju, a native of Kangshanagar village in the Amishapara Union of Noakhali’s Sonaimuri Upazila, had traveled to the United States seeking better economic prospects for his family.
Raju’s family received notification of his death on Sunday. According to relatives and accounts from his community, Raju was working at the pizza shop when an unidentified gunman opened fire. Another Bangladeshi national was also wounded in the attack. Raju was transported to a local hospital, where medical staff declared him dead.
Prior to his arrival in the United States in late 2023, Raju had spent seven years working as a painter in Qatar. Despite his long stint abroad, he struggled to achieve financial stability and eventually returned to Bangladesh. Seeking to replace his family’s modest tin-roofed home with a permanent structure and support his wife, Poli Akter, and their two young daughters—12-year-old Jannatul Naima and two-year-old Raisa Akter—Raju sold family land and borrowed money to fund his migration to the U.S. through irregular channels.
At his family home in Noakhali on Monday, relatives and neighbors gathered to mourn. His father, Mohammad Ullah, expressed deep anguish over the loss of his son, noting that the family had pinned all their hopes for a better future on Raju’s migration. He has appealed to the government to facilitate the repatriation of his son’s remains so the family can hold a final funeral.
Local union council member Abdul Aziz described Raju as a man who had faced significant hardship throughout his life. Community members echoed this sentiment, highlighting that Raju’s determination to improve his family’s living conditions had ultimately led him to a tragic end in New York before he could realize his goals.
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