Killing of Henryk Siwiak

Henryk Siwiak (1955–2001), a Polish immigrant from Kraków, was fatally shot on a street in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City, shortly before midnight on September 11, 2001. He had gone to the area by mistake while trying to reach a new cleaning job at a Pathmark supermarket in Brooklyn's Farragut section. He managed to reach the stoop of a nearby house on Decatur Street before collapsing; he was pronounced dead at the scene. His death is sometimes described as "the last person killed in New York on 9/11," though he was not a victim of the terrorist attacks earlier that day.

Siwiak had worked as an inspector for the Polish State Railways before being laid off around 2000. He came to New York to visit his sister in Far Rockaway, Queens, and stayed to find work despite lacking a work permit, sending money home to his wife, Ewa, and their two children. He had been working at a construction site in Lower Manhattan through most of 2001; that job site closed after the September 11 attacks. Later that day he found a new cleaning job through a Polish-language newspaper and an employment agency, and was told he could start that night. Due to confusion over subway directions, he ended up walking into the wrong part of Albany Avenue in Bedford–Stuyvesant, an area long regarded by residents and police as one of the city's most dangerous.

Around 11:40 p.m., residents reported hearing an argument followed by gunshots. Siwiak, shot once in the lung from a .40-caliber handgun fired seven times, staggered to a nearby rowhouse seeking help before collapsing. A 9-1-1 call was made at 11:42 p.m. and he was pronounced dead at the scene. He was carrying $75 in cash, which was not taken, leading investigators to question whether robbery was the motive.

The NYPD's investigation was constrained because most available officers and forensic resources were deployed in response to the day's terrorist attacks; a specialized Crime Scene Unit was unavailable, and only a limited evidence-collection and canvassing effort could be mounted. Cold case detective Michael Prate, who led the investigation until his retirement in 2011, has said the case would have had a "better chance" of being solved absent the attacks. Siwiak's camouflage clothing, limited English, and accent led some, including his sister, to speculate his killer may have mistaken him for connected to the attacks, though police have not classified the case as a hate crime due to lack of evidence. As of a 2018 statement to ABC News, Prate considered a botched robbery the most likely explanation. A $12,000 reward has been offered, but no arrests have been made, and Siwiak's family does not believe the case will be solved.

Because deaths from the September 11 attacks are excluded from New York City's official crime statistics for 2001, Siwiak's killing is recorded as the only homicide in the city on that date. <parameter name="timeline">[{"date": "2001-09-11", "event": "Henryk Siwiak's Lower Manhattan construction job site closes following the September 11 attacks; he later secures a new cleaning job for that night."}, {"date": "2001-09-11", "event": "Around 11 p.m., Siwiak exits the subway near Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and walks in the wrong direction toward the wrong end of Albany Avenue."}, {"date": "2001-09-11", "event": "At approximately 11:40 p.m., residents hear an argument followed by gunshots; Siwiak is shot once in the lung."}, {"date": "2001-09-11", "event": "At 11:42 p.m., a 9-1-1 call is made; Siwiak is pronounced dead at the scene after collapsing on Decatur Street."}, {"date": "2011", "event": "Cold case detective Michael Prate retires; case coverage in The New York Times marks a decade since the killing."}, {"date": "2018", "event": "Detective Michael Prate tells ABC News that a botched robbery remains his leading theory for the homicide."}]