DETROIT (WXYZ) — A violent confrontation at Jayne Park on the Detroit-Hamtramck border left one man dead and three others injured on May 25. The family of 24-year-old Abdul Ahad is now seeking answers and justice after he was fatally shot while reportedly attempting to mediate the dispute.
Watch Ruta Ulcinaite's video report below:
Family and friends describe Ahad as a community leader and mediator who knew everyone within the local Bangladesh community. It’s why he apparently went with a friend to Jayne Park that night to help settle a dispute over a fender bender.
"Very minor car accident and it wasn’t even that day; it was a couple weeks back and it wasn’t even his accident. He had just went to talk to them and settle the dispute," Ahad's close friend MD Hussain said. “For that to lead to what it led to, is just really shocking, unbelievable.”
Ahad's brother, Mohammad Samad, says Ahad's friend was the one involved in a minor car crash a few weeks before the tragedy. It was agreed the two parties involved would meet to settle damages. Family says Abdul was tagging along to help.
“He knew a lot of people in the community. I assumed he went because he assumed he would’ve known people from both sides and calmed things down," Samad said.
For reasons still unclear, things escalated and became violent between the two parties during the meetup. One individual was run over, one was stabbed and two were shot, including Abdul.
Watch our original report about the incident below:
Once word spread of the violent encounter, his friends and family were still hoping for the best.
“I didn’t want to believe it, so we spent the next hour going around all of the hospitals, checking," Samad said.
The Detroit Police Department says the investigation is ongoing, however, no one is in custody and no one has been charged. Abdul's funeral brought in hundreds of people, a sign of the kind of man he was.
"In our religion, we believe that the more people that attend a funeral, that’s a sign that the person was a righteous person, so it just touched us," Hussain said.
To continue and honor Ahad's legacy, the family set up a fundraiser to help orphans in his home country of Bangladesh, his last act of service.
The family is still working to find out what exactly happened and is asking the community to come forward if they have information by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAKUP or by calling Detroit Police Homicide at 313-596-2260.
