Shot dead after work
Attacked outside B’klyn home after returning from late shift
The city’s gun violence epidemic claimed the life of a hardworking Brooklyn man shot dead outside his Cypress Hills residence early Wednesday morning after arriving home from a late-night shift.
Neighbors and friends said Modassar Khandaker, 36, a Bangladeshi immigrant, did little but work and spend time with his family.
“That guy is a very good guy, very nice guy,” said neighbor Mohammad Alam, 50. “He never talked to anybody. He’s very quiet, just work and home. We feel so sad because we don’t want to see this.”
Friends and residents along the block said Khandaker, a husband and father of a 4-year-old boy, was fatally shot as he got home from his job at Kennedy Airport, where he helped airline passengers with wheelchairs.
Around 12:45 a.m., the sound of a single gunshot echoed through the area on Forbell St. near Glenmore Ave. as Khandaker stepped out of his 2019 Honda CRV.
Cops were already responding to an alert in the area from ShotSpotter, a gunfire locator service, when they received a 911 call directing them to Khandaker’s street.
Islam Nezrul, a neighbor, said he was watching TV with his family when he heard the one shot. When he stepped outside to see what was going on, the ambulance had already arrived.
Medics rushed Khandaker to Jamaica Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Nezrul said footage from his security camera showed a person running in front of his house, and that two masked men ran to a getaway car parked nearby and drove off.
“Everything was so quick,” he said. “It’s hard to see because they have a mask on. I couldn’t see anything, no face,” he said.
A pool of blood could still be seen outside Khandaker’s home later on Wednesday morning. Police towed away the car he had stepped out of before he was shot.
Alam said he knew Khandaker for a long time. “We came from the same country, and he was my neighbor,” he said.
Khandaker was “a very cool guy,” said friend and co-worker, Rubel Chakrabortoy 31, who said he knew the victim for five years.
“He was not like a colleague. He was like a big brother, caring,” Chakrabortoy said. “Every day, he called me to check up on me. Now I’m feeling I didn’t lose my colleague, I lost my big brother.”
Chakrabortoy said all his friend talked about was his family.
“He always loved his son. He would go out with his family,” Chakrabortoy said. “He loved his son. His son was his whole world.”
“It’s going to be hard to take this in,” said Zakir Uddin, 52, a neighbor of the Khandaker family. “It’s not easy, especially obviously with any human being, but when you see it or hear it right next to you it’s unbelievable.”
Nur Sadlee, 31, a longtime resident, said the shooting “shocked” him, and put the neighborhood on edge.
“I grew up here in the ’90s and early 2000s,” he said. “Crime here back then — there used to be shootouts in the alleys because everyone used to come from everywhere to go shopping here. So this area used to be crazy back then.
“Now I’m surprised something like this happened because this kind of stuff doesn’t happen often nowadays,” said Sadlee. “It’s much quieter over here nowadays, much quieter. The neighborhood is much more community-oriented.”
Neighborhood resident Eric Erroyo, 43, said he has to be more cautious now.
“It’s crazy,” he said. “That’s why I get home before 10 o’clock. It’s just too much going on.”