A slice of justice
A merciless robber was on the loose
Zakareia Husein was a ‘beautiful soul’ and a ‘pure spirit’ according to people who knew him. Kind and forgiving, he wasn’t the sort to hold a grudge.
He worked hard, too. During the day, Zak, 21, devoted himself to his education, studying International Business at the University of
Akron, Ohio.
Evenings and weekends, he pitched in at his brother Ammar’s takeaway, New
York Style Pizza.
He’d take orders, and serve customers.
The brothers hadn’t had it easy. They’d come to the US as refugees from Jerusalem, with their sister and parents, in the 1990s.
They’d worked hard, were determined to succeed.
At 10.40pm on
7 December 2015, Zak was helping Ammar close up the pizza shop when a figure swaggered in. The man was wearing dark clothes and shoes with white laces. Another customer? But sadly, this man was looking for more than a late-night snack. He’d covered his face with a ski mask, was holding a gun.
He pointed it right at Zak, who was standing behind the counter. The shop’s CCTV camera captured what happened next.
The masked man demanded money.
Zak quickly opened the till. He took out a wad of notes and then handed them over to the robber.
Yet, rather than running off with the money, the robber aimed the gun right at Zak. He pulled the trigger and shot him at close range. In cold blood.
Zak was hit in the torso. The poor lad suffered catastrophic injuries.
Paramedics raced to the scene and rushed him to hospital but, tragically, Zak couldn’t be saved.
It’d taken just a few moments for a promising young life to be snuffed out – Ammar and his parents were left utterly devastated.
Tragically, two decades earlier, the boys’ uncle had been killed – and now the family were enduring fresh heartbreak.
‘No-one was really trying to be a hero,’ said one anonymous witness.
‘We didn’t know he was going to shoot, we just thought he was going to take the money and leave.’
With Zak’s horrific murder recorded forever in stark CCTV footage, detectives promised the Husein family that they’d find his killer.
‘We will solve this,’ vowed the then-police chief James Nice.
Investigators worked tirelessly on the case.
In the meantime, the city of Akron was shaken by more violent robberies. Months after Zak’s death, in May 2016, Sonia Freeman, 48, and her son, Christopher LeeFreeman, 28, were shot dead by intruders at their home.
Sonia’s 9-year-old daughter was a witness and had to call an ambulance.
The following month, Christian Dorsey, 24, was found shot dead in a street robbery.
More lives brutally cut short, more families torn apart.
Meanwhile, Zak’s grieving family still waited for news.
Finally, in July 2017, the police charged a man with the pizza-shop murder.
Shaquille Anderson, then aged 23.
A man with a criminal past, Anderson was already
This man was looking for more than a latenight snack
behind bars for unrelated robbery and weapons crimes.
He’d initially been caught in August 2016, when he’d crashed his car following a chase with police.
A gun had been found in his wrecked white Ford car and he’d admitted to carrying out a spree of armed robberies in the area, targeting shops and innocent pedestrians.
Now, police investigating Zak’s murder said that they’d identified Anderson as a suspect.
Zak’s brother Ammar spoke of his relief and said he hoped the charges would bring his family peace.
‘Hopefully, less tears from my mom,’ he said. ‘Hopefully, a break for my dad. I don’t have to think, “Hey, maybe I drove by my brother’s killer today.”’
In December 2019, Shaquille Anderson pleaded guilty to eight counts of aggravated robbery with a firearm and was sentenced to 21 years in prison.
The following February, he pleaded no contest to the aggravated murder of Zak, aggravated robbery of the pizza place, and weapons charges, leading to the judge finding him guilty.
Prosecutors told the court Anderson confessed in prison to shooting Zak.
The court also heard Anderson had struggled with substance abuse and other issues, too.
When asked what motivated Anderson to commit the robberies, his lawyer Andrea Whitaker named several reasons.
‘He came from poverty,’ she said. ‘He has nothing. He didn’t finish school. Drug habits.’
She added, ‘He’s had a very, very difficult life that obviously has had a longlasting impact on him.’
The plea deal meant that prosecutors wouldn’t pursue the death penalty.
However, sentencing was delayed, as Anderson was also charged with the murders of Sonia Freeman, Christopher Lee-Freeman, and Christian Dorsey.
His court appearance on these charges, too, has since been delayed, although he is facing a likely sentence of life without parole.
Zak’s family have thanked the authorities
Ammar said, ‘We placed our trust in Akron Police, and we placed our trust in the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office from day one.’
He also told how his brother would have welcomed the plea bargain, which meant that, while Anderson avoided the death penalty, he would be held responsible for his other crimes.
‘It’s an honour for our family not to seek the death sentence and to seek life without parole to bring justice to multiple other families,’ Ammar said.
‘Even the day of his death, he [Zak] reminded everybody that afternoon, “Hey, forgive everybody that hurt you, forgive anybody that hurt you.”
‘That’s just the way he went about life.’