Guyanese woman murdered in Bronx
-became US citizen two weeks ago
By Vishnu Bisram
Stabroek News
April 29, 2004
A Guyanese health care worker was murdered in her home in the Bronx, New York on Tuesday morning.
Waheeda Rohoman Khan, 37, died in the arms of her two sons - Rehaz, 15, and Satraz, 13 - without being able to say who had attacked her. But police are looking for a 56-year-old man who was described as a friend.
Police have not disclosed the name of the alleged attacker who is also believed to be Guyanese.
Police said Khan was dead when officers, responding to an emergency 911 call, arrived at her apartment in the Castle Hill section where many Guyanese are settled, at 3.05 am. Detectives said she was beaten with a blunt instrument in the back of her head and was found in a pool of blood. An autopsy will determine cause of death.
Police said no weapons were recovered from the crime scene but they said they traced a light trail of blood from the woman's home to the home of the man's brother next door. That house was surrounded by yellow crime-scene tape as detectives dusted for fingerprints and other evidence up to late Tuesday evening.
Relatives described Khan as a hard-working woman. Khan has a husband in Guyana, but relatives say she brought her two sons from Guyana seven years ago.
They said she had occasionally cooked for the suspect but had spurned his attempts to become more involved with her.
Khan was a home-health care attendant who relatives said worked two or three jobs to raise her sons and to some day bring her husband to join them. Khan was sworn in as a US citizen only two weeks ago and was scheduled to leave for Guyana on Thursday.
According to reports in the Daily News and Newsday newspapers, the suspect sent Khan's older son to get some chicken at a nearby restaurant. Her younger son was sleeping when the attack occurred. Reports say when Satraz returned from the restaurant at about 3 am, he found his mother dying on the floor in a pool of blood and the friend gone. He awoke his brother Rehaz who then called 911. They wrapped a shirt around their mother in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding.
Khan bought the three-storey house four years ago and rented out apartments in the basement and on the third floor.
She worked at the Hebrew Home for the Aged in Riverdale, Bronx. She tended her home well and furnished it with antique furniture. Khan's father, Abdool Rohoman, 59, who lives several blocks away told reporters: "What's special about her is she came here, worked hard and looked after her two children. She tried to make her life. This is not fair".