In the early morning hours of June 29, 2015, Naji Fawaz, a 35-year-old livery cab driver from Brooklyn and a native of Yemen, was senselessly murdered in what investigators believe was a robbery gone wrong. A father of two, Fawaz was working his shift when he was found slumped over in the front seat of his car on Decatur Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant with multiple gunshot wounds to his neck and torso. Despite being rushed to Kings County Hospital, he was pronounced dead.
The incident left the community in shock and his family devastated.
The investigation into the death of Naji Fawaz quickly led police to identify two suspects. Several days after the shooting, the New York Police Department arrested 24-year-old Tyrell Gardenhire. He was subsequently charged with murder, attempted robbery, and criminal possession of a loaded firearm. The second suspect, 23-year-old Unique Gray, also from Brooklyn, was identified and a search for him began. Investigators believed that the two men had hailed Fawaz's cab with the intention of robbing him, and the confrontation escalated, leading to the fatal shooting which also caused Fawaz's vehicle to crash into a parked car.
After a manhunt, Unique Gray was apprehended in North Carolina and extradited back to Brooklyn to face charges. Gray was charged with first and second-degree murder, robbery, and criminal possession of a weapon. In the subsequent legal proceedings, Tyrell Gardenhire pleaded guilty to first-degree attempted robbery and was sentenced to nine years in prison, with five years of post-release supervision. Following a jury trial, Unique Gray was convicted of first-degree murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. He received a sentence of 25 years to life in prison for his role in the tragic and untimely death of Naji Fawaz.
