Man Returns From Errand to Find Mother Fatally Shot
By SHAILA K. DEWAN
New York Times
April 28, 2004
he police are investigating the death of a Bronx woman whose 19-year-old son returned home from a brief errand early yesterday to find her in her bedroom with a gunshot wound to the head.
"He went to her room and found her lying down, fighting for breath," said Azeema Garcia, the woman's sister, outside the two-family house at 2131 Blackrock Avenue, in Castle Hill, where the woman died.
The woman, Waheeda Khan, 37, was pronounced dead at the scene. The police said they had made no arrests and did not know the motive for the killing. No gun was recovered.
Ms. Khan, a nurse, cared for her two teenage sons by herself, said Ms. Garcia.
Neighbors and family members said there was no sign of burglary or forced entry.
Safraz Khan, the son who found his mother shot, told upstairs neighbors that his mother's boyfriend had sent him out to buy fried chicken around 2 a.m., the neighbors said. They said Mr. Khan told them that his mother and her boyfriend had been arguing.
When Mr. Khan returned with the food, the boyfriend was gone, a neighbor, Cesar Martinez, 16, said.
Mr. Khan's brother, Rahaz, 15, was asleep in his room and heard nothing, the neighbors said.
Johanna Tejeda, 26, another neighbor, said she heard no shot but was awakened by the commotion.
Ms. Khan was one of six children who had immigrated from Guyana. Her sons' father was planning to come to the United States from Guyana in August, Ms. Garcia said.
"I have no clue, I have no clue," she said when asked if she had any idea who might have killed her sister.
Neighbors said that they had seen a male visitor a few times, once shoveling snow outside, and had assumed he was a family member. "She worked all day and she was always cheery," Ms. Tejeda said of Ms. Khan. "Everything she did was for her boys."