Laurel Rae Chasmar, a 28-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran, was shot and killed in the early morning hours of August 5, 2017, outside her apartment complex in Morris Plains, New Jersey. The shooter was identified as her 32-year-old ex-boyfriend and co-worker, Hassan Shahid, of Jersey City. The Morris County Prosecutor's Office later confirmed the incident as a murder-suicide.
Shahid had been lying in wait for Chasmar in the parking garage of The Highlands at Morris Plains Apartments. He had borrowed a car to avoid being recognized. When Chasmar arrived, Shahid fired more than a dozen shots from a. 45 caliber handgun, hitting parked cars and grazing her. Chasmar attempted to flee to the common entrance of her building but was unable to unlock the door in time and was fatally shot.
Police officers at the nearby borough police station heard the gunshots and responded to the scene.
Upon their arrival, Shahid fled across the street into Morris Township, where he then died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Chasmar's body was found in Morris Plains, and Shahid's body was discovered shortly after in the neighboring Morris Township. The Morris County Medical Examiner determined Chasmar's cause of death to be multiple gunshot wounds and Shahid's a suicide.
Prior to her death, Chasmar had complained to the police that Shahid was harassing her. According to the Morris Plains mayor, Chasmar and Shahid had dated while working together at the pharmaceutical company Novartis, but she had ended the relationship. Although police had advised her to get a restraining order, she had not done so. As the perpetrator died at the scene, there were no arrests made in connection with Laurel Chasmar's murder.
