Brooklyn bodega worker mowed down by hit-and-run driver mourned by family, customers: ‘Like a piece of trash, left him to die’
A revered Brooklyn immigrant killed by a hit-and-run driver helped get the party started at a recent family wedding — with heartbroken relatives now left to plan his funeral.
Ali Alshawesh, whose killer remained on the loose Tuesday, made the upstate celebration “a lot of fun,” his nephew Jabi Almuganahi told the Daily News. “He loved to dance. He was the center of the party. ... Well-loved person, everywhere he went.”
The 64-year-old immigrant from Yemen was a beloved fixture at the family-owned Avenue L Superette in Canarsie, where he worked daily 12-hour shifts before he was left to die on the sidewalk just a few blocks from home.
He was walking home from the bodega when he was struck on the sidewalk near the edge of the roadway on Avenue M by a driver in a 2014 gray Nissan Pathfinder making a wide turn off Remsen Ave. at about 11:30 p.m. Sunday, police said.
Family and friends assembled Tuesday outside the Avenue L Superette, owned by a relative for the past five years, with Alshawesh’s son among its five employees.
The NYPD is still hunting for the driver. The victim’s outraged nephew called for the maximum penalty if an arrest is made.
“He hit a man supporting his family,” said Almuganahi. “He took him away from us. Like a piece of trash, left him to die. Didn’t have the heart to wait.”
The fugitive driver slammed into a parked car while fleeing the scene. The Pathfinder was later found abandoned less than half a mile away.
Family members said the victim’s first wife died in 2012 and his second wife was living with Alshawesh’s daughter in their homeland. He was the father of five and grandfather to more than 30 kids.
The family is now preparing for an influx of mourners from as far away as California and Michigan.
“Well-loved person, everywhere he went,” recalled Almuganahi.
A woman who worked next door to the bodega said Alshawesh’s unexpected death has rocked the neighborhood.
“A lot of customers came by: ‘Did you hear what happened?’” she recounted. “Not one that left without a tear in their eye — ‘Not him!’ We lost a great person. He’s a rare gem.
”Who deserves that?” she added. “Treated him like a dog in the street ... You left that family broken.”
Another local resident recalled the immigrant as someone who made sure customers short on money received free goods and offered support after her husband died and when she was battling cancer.
“He was a wonderful man, made you feel welcome,” she said. “[This] should never have happened.”
According to the victim’s son Salim, the last thing his father did before the fatal crash was leave a voicemail donation for an Egyptian man’s medical treatment.
The son said his goals for the future were to embrace his father’s approach to life.
“To be on his level,” the son said. “To follow him.”
With Matthew Euzarraga
