NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A close-knit Queens community is pleading with the public’s help for leads in the fatal shooting of a 75-year-old grandfather and bakery owner, more than a month after he was killed in broad daylight while sitting by a lake in Kissena Park.
Albert Itzkowitz’s body was found at Kissena Lake in Flushing on the afternoon of May 18. Five weeks later, his family says the NYPD has no leads or a prime suspect in the homicide investigation.
Crime scene tape was still up Thursday at the location where Albert Itzkowitz was shot. Mary-Lyn Buckley
The victim’s family and members of the community gathered in the park on Thursday to ask the public for help. His son Tzvi Yonie Itzkowitz said his dad, a father of five, was loved by everyone.
“Who’d want to harm a sweet, defenseless, elderly man simply enjoying the hot days he loved so much?” Itzkowitz said.
“Nobody deserves this,” he said. “This was a senseless act of what we feel was antisemitism, and we’re asking anyone and everyone who may know something, see something, heard something, to please, please come forward.”
Albert Itzkowitz’s daughter Leah Livshitz (second left) and son Tzvi Yonie Itzkowitz (right) attended a press conference Thursday asking the public for help.Mary-Lyn Buckley
The victim’s daughter Leah Livshitz said the family has chosen to double the NYPD’s reward, bringing the total to $20,000, as they seek answers in the case.
She said her father would often go to Kissena Park on his lunch breaks and sit by the lake where he was ultimately found dead.
While the NYPD said they’re not currently investigating the killing as a hate crime, the family believes the circumstances suggest he was targeted because of his faith.
“He was not involved in a dispute, he was not committing any crime, his wallet was still on him,” Livshitz said. “He was simply sitting there, an Orthodox Jewish man dressed as he was, a rabbi going about his day.”
“This was not some random crime in some random place, the circumstances demand answers,” she said.
State Sen. John Liu, who joined the family at the park, said “law enforcement needs to keep this urgent” and members of the public must step forward with any information they have.
“Number one, there’s a killer at large, and it makes it dangerous for all of us and our families,” the senator said. “And number two, it cannot be missed that we have an unprecedented spate of antisemitism all across the city.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
