On the morning of May 9, 2011, 22-year-old Mohamed Bilal Billy Altinawi was working at his family’s Post Road Deli in West Haven, Connecticut when a man with a shotgun entered the store at about 8:20 a.m. The robber demanded money and, when Altinawi could not open the register, shot him at point-blank range in the face and neck. The assailant fled with about $2,500 in cash, stamps, and cigarettes.

Altinawi’s friends and family remembered him as a hardworking, devout Muslim who often extended credit to customers. West Haven police arrested three suspects within days: the alleged shooter, identified as Marquis Pettway, a lookout named Robert Bobby Kinnebrew, and Phillip Jamal Harris Jr., described as the getaway driver. Marcus Pettway later pleaded guilty to murder and Kinnebrew and Harris pleaded to related charges; all three received prison sentences.