The slaying of a Jewish baker who moonlit as a rabbi stays a stone chilly whodunit greater than month after he was horrifically discovered shot lifeless close to a lake in a Queens park.
Albert Itzkowitz, 75, was slain in broad daylight – with gunshots in his neck and again – alongside the shoreline of Kissena Lake on Could 18.
His physique was discovered shortly earlier than 5 p.m., sparking a thriller that is still frustratingly unsolved for his family members.
“All motives” are being investigated and none are being dominated out, NYPD officers mentioned – together with the potential that Itzkowitz was the sufferer of an antisemitic hate crime.
“He didn’t have any enemies. You may write that down,” his distraught son, Moshe Oelbaum, advised The Put up just a few days after the homicide.
The seemingly humdrum final hours of Itzkowitz’s life – aside from the deadly confrontation with a still-unknown assailant or assailants – have been reconstructed by NYPD investigators.
Itzkowitz, an observant Jew who served as a rabbi at a nursing residence, left his Kew Backyard Hills home shortly earlier than 6:15 a.m., police mentioned.
After spending roughly two hours at a synagogue, he went to a Capital One financial institution, the place he made a withdrawal at 9 a.m., in accordance with cops.
Shortly after 10 a.m., Itzkowitz returned residence and briefly went exterior round 10:55 a.m. for a minute earlier than going again indoors, police mentioned.
He left his residence for a remaining time at 11 a.m. and walked over to a Walgreens, the place he made a purchase order.
Video footage exhibits Izkowitz’s automobile approaching Kissena Park – a forested haven with a picturesque lake – a couple of minutes earlier than 11:30 a.m., cops mentioned.
His daughter, Leah Livshitz, mentioned throughout a press convention Thursday that the park was a quiet place her dad “often visited throughout his lunch break.”
Police mentioned Izkowitz was within the park to sunbathe, as he was discovered with a seashore chair, a baseball cap and sun shades with a crossword puzzle.
No matter occurred between Izkowitz’s arrival and the invention of his physique roughly 5 hours later stays unknown.
Police seemingly don’t have any motive or suspects — and their queries about whether or not anybody had private points with Itzkowitz have solely baffled his household.
“When the police had been asking us, ‘Does he have any enemies? Does he have any neighbors who he had troubles with?’ All of us had been crying,” his son mentioned.
“However on the similar time we began laughing out loud and everybody began smiling, ‘Enemies?’ The thought is comical to us. He was the sweetest, kindest man. So good and beautiful to everybody.”
Itzkowitz owned the G&I Kosher Bakery on Primary Avenue, a neighborhood establishment for a number of years earlier than it shut down. He was additionally a volunteer EMT, in accordance with his daughter.
Outdoors of labor, Itzkowitz was deeply devoted to his household, together with his spouse, who handed away April 30, a pair weeks earlier than his homicide, Livshitz mentioned.
His household on Thursday gathered on the park with native elected officers to announce a brand new reward, as they raised the potential that he was the goal of antisemitic hate.
“Daddy was visibly Jewish,” an emotional Livshitz mentioned.
However police have famous Itzkowitz was present in apparel with “no distinguishing spiritual components” that will establish him as Jewish.
The NYPD has not deemed the case a hate crime, however officers mentioned they haven’t dominated it out.
Till then, police are nonetheless trying to find leads.
Tzvi Yonie Itzkowitz, 34, the sufferer’s youngest son, mentioned the household was matching Crime Stoppers’ award of $10,000 for any data resulting in an arrest within the case – for a complete of $20,000.
“The police estimate there may have been 200, 300 individuals right here. It’s a really giant park,” Itzkowitz mentioned. “They’re asking that anybody who noticed something or is aware of something to return ahead.”
– Extra reporting by Georgett Roberts, Kevin Sheehan and Amanda Woods
