On a summer evening in Manhattan, 19-year-old Kenneth Azuris was standing outside on West 109th Street when a white sedan approached. It was July 14, 2020, and from the passenger seat of the vehicle, multiple shots were fired, striking Azuris in the head. The car then sped off, leaving the young man critically injured. He was rushed to Mount Sinai St. Luke's Hospital, where he fought for his life for six days before succumbing to his injuries on July 20, 2020.
In the wake of his death, the New York Police Department launched an investigation into the drive-by shooting. They released surveillance footage of the white sedan, hoping to gather leads from the public to identify those responsible. Police sources later indicated that the shooting might have stemmed from an ongoing dispute, and they suggested that Azuris may have been armed and even fired first during the encounter. His mother, however, expressed her belief that she knew who was responsible for her son's death.
Despite the release of the video and the ongoing investigation, there have been no public announcements regarding any arrests or the identification of any suspects in the killing of Kenneth Azuris. The case remains unresolved, with no one having been charged or brought to trial for his death. In a selfless act of generosity amidst her grief, Azuris's mother chose to donate her son's organs, a decision that provided life-saving transplants to others, including a family friend who had been waiting for a heart for five years and his own grandfather who received a kidney.
