On the evening of Thursday, April 1, 2010, Adel Kobeissi, a Lebanese American man also known as Alex, was closing his Sunoco gas station on Detroit’s west side. At about 9:45 p.m., as he was leaving near the corner of Puritan Street and Schaefer Highway, he was attacked in a sudden robbery and shot in the head. His family says the assailant took only the change he was carrying; Adel had been due to take his wife and children on a family vacation to Florida the next day.

The killing added to a troubling pattern of Arab and Chaldean business owners targeted in robberies in Detroit and nearby suburbs. The murder devastated his family; his brother Imad Kobeissi later described keeping framed photos of Adel in home, car, and workplace to remember him. The case has gone cold with no publicly identified suspects or arrests, though it remains open and a cash reward of up to $18,000 is offered for information leading to a felony arrest.

If anyone has information about Adel’s murder or was in the Puritan and Schaefer area that night, please come forward.