On the morning of January 16, 2022, 32-year-old clerk Raouf Muharram was shot and killed behind the counter at the Blue Star Market on South Salina Street in Syracuse. Police described the slaying as a coldblooded execution and it was the city’s first homicide of the year.

Investigators canvassed the neighborhood, interviewed witnesses, and collected physical evidence. Detectives identified a regular customer, Kareem D. Huggins, after learning of an argument three days earlier in which Huggins reportedly told Muharram he would come back and shoot him. Surveillance video from inside and outside the store shows Huggins leave and return, then walk to the end of the counter and shoot Muharram at point-blank range.

Huggins fled but was located about 16 hours later at a rest stop in Sandusky, Ohio, in a stolen vehicle and in possession of a handgun; he was extradited to Syracuse on charges of second-degree murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Does anyone have information about Muharram’s life or the Blue Star Market that could help fill in gaps about that morning?