In the winter of 2017, the lives of two men who had journeyed from Jordan to Indianapolis in pursuit of a better future were tragically cut short. Wesam Sammour, a 34-year-old male, and his co-worker, Ammar Shatnawi, were working at Jordan's Fish & Chicken on the city's east side on the night of January 3rd. Just before closing time, two armed individuals entered the restaurant in what police would later describe as a takeover-style robbery.
The assailants, whose faces were obscured,
were captured on the restaurant's surveillance cameras. The footage showed two men, one clad in a red jacket and the other in a dark-colored one, brandishing handguns as they vaulted over the counter. The events that transpired in the moments that followed left both Sammour and Shatnawi fatally wounded. A concerned relative discovered their bodies later that night after they failed to return home.
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department launched a homicide investigation and released the surveillance footage to the public in the hopes that someone might recognize the suspects' clothing or mannerisms. The brazen and violent nature of the crime sent ripples of fear and sorrow through the local community. In the days following the double homicide, a makeshift memorial of flowers and candles grew outside the closed restaurant as patrons and neighbors paid their respects to the two men.
In an effort to bring the perpetrators to justice, a reward of up to $2,000 was offered by Crime Stoppers for any information that would lead to an arrest. The victims' families and friends, desperate for answers, pooled their resources to offer an additional, substantial reward of $50,000. Despite these efforts and the public dissemination of the suspects' images, years have passed without any publicly announced arrests or the naming of any suspects. The case of Wesam Sammour and Ammar Shatnawi remains an unsolved and painful chapter in the city's history, a story of two lives taken in a senseless act of violence.
