A Queens newlywed who died fighting off muggers likely put up a struggle to keep her cellphone — because it had romantic texts from her husband on it, the heartbroken spouse said yesterday.
“Nothing in the bag was so valuable — she had a phone, an iPod and maybe $20,” a weeping Shazam Khan said of his wife, Rabia Mohammed, 23, whom he watched get shot as they walked near their home Sunday night.
“She was very sentimental. She really cherished our text messages,” said Khan, 29. “She has four cellphones that are full. When she doesn’t have any memory left, she gets a new phone.”
Cops and Khan say the couple, who were married last October, were walking on 204th Street in Hollis at around 8:30 p.m. Sunday, on their way to Khan’s mother’s house, when three thugs demanded Mohammed’s purse.
The killers came “out of nowhere,” the husband said.
One attacker grabbed him, he said, while another took hold of his wife. The third tried to grab her purse, Khan said.
The grief-stricken husband said he broke free of his attacker and jumped toward his wife to help her when he saw “two flashes” of gunfire. Mohammed was shot twice in the chest. The fiends fled.
“As bad as it was, at least I was with her when her time came,” Khan said. “I would never wish for someone’s wife to die in their arms. It’s a terrible thing.”