Five weeks ago, a 75-year-old man went to Kissena Park in Queens to sunbathe with a beach chair, a radio and a crossword puzzle. Police said someone shot him in the neck and back.
Police have pieced together much of his morning through surveillance video and financial records, but said the trail ends after he arrives at the park. A few hours later, Albert "Avrumie" Itzkowitz was found along the shore of Kissena Lake, according to the NYPD.
The city's medical examiner has ruled the death a homicide.
Map shows the area near Kissena Lake in Queens where police say Albert "Avrumie" Itzkowitz was found fatally shot on May 18.
Stunned that someone could be shot twice in a popular park in broad daylight, the man’s family announced Thursday that they would match Crime Stoppers' newly increased $10,000 reward, bringing the total to $20,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
"We are desperate for answers and have found ourselves in emotional limbo over the past month," his son, Tzvi Yonie Itzkowitz, said.
"If you were in Kissena Park on May 18 and you may have heard or seen something, or if you have any information to share on the case at all, we ask that you please, please come forward."
Investigators have assembled a detailed timeline of Itzkowitz’s final morning using surveillance video and financial records, according to police officials. Those records track Itzkowitz from the moment he left his Flushing home at 6:13 a.m., through prayers at his synagogue until 8:40 a.m., a cash withdrawal at a Capital One branch at 9:01 a.m., a brief return home, a Walgreens stop at 11:14 a.m. and his car arriving at Kissena Park at 11:27 a.m.
He had a beach chair, a radio, a baseball cap, sunglasses and a crossword puzzle with him.
Itzkowitz's family and several state and city lawmakers are urging investigators to examine whether the killing was motivated by antisemitism, pointing to his identity as an Orthodox Jew and a rise in antisemitic incidents in the city.
"In a city where antisemitic incidents have surged, where Jewish New Yorkers have increasingly been targeted because of who they are, we cannot ignore what happened here," his daughter, Leah Lifshitz, said. "Daddy was visibly Jewish. He was targeted in broad daylight."
Police have not classified the killing as a hate crime, saying the motive remains under investigation.
Officials said Itzkowitz was not wearing clothing detectives believe would have identified him as Jewish that day, and investigators have not publicly identified evidence that his religion was a motive. They said they would pursue hate crime charges if evidence supported them.
More than a month later, there is no suspect description, no public motive and no arrest.
Family members said Itzkowitz served for more than two decades as a kosher supervisor at a Queens nursing home. They said he also volunteered as an EMT and worked as a baker.
