A Brooklyn landlord was found in his office nearly decapitated and police are eyeing one of his tenants as a person of interest in what investigators believe is a robbery gone bad, authorities said.
Mahuddin Mahmud’s wife and brother made the grisly discovery Tuesday around 12:30 a.m. when they went looking for him after he didn’t come home from work, police sources said.
The 57-year-old, who came to the US from Bangladesh, owned Dual Enterprises on McDonald Avenue and kept an office in the basement of the Kensington building — the same building where he also rents out a basement apartment, police said.
His face had burns marks on it and his head was almost severed, cops said.
The victim’s brother Hanif Mahmood,50, said he was allegedly the victim of a robbery.
“My brother had a money exchange, check cashing, and gold business. He had a jewelry store with a big locker and they took everything. There was a combination and a key so I don’t know how they took it,” he said.
“Maybe $20,000 worth taken. It was in the safe and the safe was open,” he added.
Sources said that the father of four had called police for help around 8 p.m. Monday but when cops showed up they didn’t check the basement. Instead they questioned tenants on the second floor, who told cops that they did not call 911.
“We are also basically conducting a full range of interviews with other people in the building to determine whether there were threats made against the victim in the past from known individuals,” Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said. “We’re effectively trying to recreate what might have prompted a very significant injury to the individual during the course of this homicide.”
“He was a good person he never had any problems with anybody,” the victim’s son Humayun Rahman said. “This is the shocking part why someone killed him.”
Police want to talk to MD Rasel Siddiquee, 27, who lives in the basement apartment, applied for a taxi license and immigrated from Bangladesh, is a person of interest, law enforcement sources said.