The son of a Brooklyn bodega owner who was gunned down during a botched robbery attempt at his store was about to get married, his family said today.
Abdul Abuzaid, 18, who came to New York from Yemen two years ago after finishing high school, was two or three months away from tying the knot his sweetheart in his home country.
He and his father, Mansoor Abuzaid, were gunned down Wednesday night when a pair of pistol-wielding thugs invaded their Crown Heights shop.
“It’s unbelievable. It’s so hard to believe the two of them are dead,” said family member Adeeb Albaadani, 21.
The Abuzaids, described by friends and family as inseparable, were herded into the basement of Utica Deli & Grocery along with two coworkers and a customer.
Sources said the father-son team, who worked 16 hour days together, tried to ward off the attackers when they were fatally shot. A coworker was brutally pistol-whipped during the struggle.
The crooks made off with an undetermined amount of cigarettes and cash police said.
Family and friends were stunned at the news of the senseless slayings.
“[Mansoor] worked 16 to 17 hours just to make a living, pay his rent, feed his kids and this is how it went down?” asked fellow store-owner Freddy Zaza, 26.
“This is just sad. Everybody wants to make an honest living to support your family and he’s dead in the basement next to his son.”
Mansoor Abuzaid, a father of eight who immigrated from Yemen 27 years ago, bought the deli two years ago after owning another store in Red Hook for 18 years.
He and his son “were very close,” said Yemeni community member Aisha Muedh.
“They left every morning together,” she said. ” They would work together literally from the morning to the night.”
“The way it ended was very unfair. The people who took their lives were very selfish.”
Additional Reporting by Tom Liddy