Brooklyn, NY – Held aloft by mourners, the simple pine coffin that carried the body of a slain meals on wheels deliveryman wound through the streets of Brooklyn.
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A dozen wailing women, including the dead man’s widow, walked 50 feet behind.
Hundreds filled the streets outside the Schwartz Brothers Funeral Home in Forest Hills, Queens, yesterday, grieving for Imonil Aminov, who was shot in the chest moments after he delivered food to an elderly woman in the Brownsville Houses Monday.
Aminov’s widow, Nadia, her head wrapped in a scarf, wept as she walked unsteadily behind the procession to a waiting hearse.
“I miss my husband,” she sobbed before collapsing into the arms of relatives who tried to revive her by splashing water on her face and placing smelling salts under her nose.
“I still don’t believe it,” said Joseph Aminov, the victim’s youngest brother. “He was not a business guy, he was a simple family person.”
“It feels like I’m in a movie,” he said.
Imonil Aminov, 55, moved from Russia two decades ago, and started working at the nonprofit Jewish Association for Services for the Aged in August. He was filling in for the normal courier on the Brownsville route the morning he was gunned down.
“Imonil was doing the greatest mitzvah [good deed] in the Torah, helping the poor and the sick,” said Rabbi Yitzak Yehoshua, the funeral’s officiant. “He was shot by evil people and we still don’t know what the reason is.”
Detectives continued to sweep the area near the murder scene on Dumont Ave. but have not made any arrests.
“In the short time he worked for us, he had the same kind of [joyful] impact on co-workers as the senior citizens he would give meals to,” said Wesley Rosen, a JASA executive.
“This man represented all of the divine qualities: goodness, kindness and compassion,” Rosen said. “He gave of himself.”
U/D:
A $12,000 reward is now offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the gunman that shot and killed Imonil Aminov.
Police escorts will now be provided for “Meals on Wheels” deliveries in the housing project.
hamakom yenachem eschem bsoch avaylay tzion beyerushalayim
Such a tragic story! It reminds us that there are straightforward genuine people, happy to make a modest parnossah, doing good for the world even in dangerous neighborhoods. He never made a fuss of himself, caused kiddush Shem Shomayim in the world. And the sincere Bukharan community understand that he deserves the big kovod acharon… not the super-machers who then crumble under investigations.
Yehie Zichri Borich!
sad. lost his life because of a lowlife animal. may hasem give the family comfort.
May the family find comfort in zion.
nebuch,
This Bukharan community in Queens is little known to us Brookliners. I had chance to meet some of its members. My impression was of an ehrlicha Yiddishe Kehilla who try hard to maintain their Yiddish lifestyle in our melting pot society. Yehi Zichro Boruch.
that community is really something to learn from
i personally know a couple of youg girls who were my campers and are from there
the amount of chessed and the way they sere hashem is soo great
we should only learn from them!
may his family be comforted!
THIS FAMILY HAS EVERYTHING TO BE PROUD OF. THIS YOUNG MAN REPRESENTS WHAT WE SHOULD ALL TRY TO DO EVERYDAY. CHESED!!!
What a tragedy! May the family be comforted among the mourners of Tzion.
Baruch Dayan Haemes!
Hashem yinakaym domov!
Rest in peace Mr. Aminov. I hope your killer is found, tortured and then left to rot in jail forever.
This man was in my synagogue. Very nice man. Always joking and smiling. Very sad, his mom is still alive.