Community Mourns Slain Food Provider
This article will appear in the Jewish Press later this week.
Emanuel Aminov, the man killed last week as he delivered meals-on-wheels to the elderly at a Brownsville housing project, was remembered in very different ways in two communities on the day of his funeral.
In the Bukharian Jewish community of Queens, hundreds of mourners remembered the grandfather of seven, a modest family man who put his kindness to work delivering meals.
In Brownsville, Brooklyn, a neighborhood struggling to solve the murder, Aminov’s death underscored the challenges facing the low-income, crime-ridden area.
“I will make sure that the police leave no stone unturned,” said Charles Barron, the city councilman who represents both Brownsville and Starrett City, where Aminov, 55, lived. He dismissed Brownsville’s often-tense relations with police. “If you don’t want to snitch, tell me and I’ll do it, ” he said at the funeral.
“He was making life better for those in need,” said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz to the mourners. “Each of you represents the very best in him.”
His family agreed. “He isn’t a business guy,” said his brother, Yosef Aminov. “He was a simple family person.” Ironically, the family had fled war-torn Tajikistan in 1989 for New York where Emanuel Aminov worked hard to make a better life for his children and grandchildren.
Aminov wanted a better life for others, too. That’s why he often filled in for other drivers to deliver food packages for the Jewish Association for Services for the Aged (JASA). Last Monday morning, as he walked down the stairs of 341 Dumont Avenue, an anonymous black man confronted him, police said, and fired the fatal shot in his chest.
While his death brought city officials and rabbinical leaders to the funeral, the murder reminded Brownsville residents of the criminal in their midst. “He may feel so guilty he will turn himself in,” said Terrell Jensen, 25.
Jensen didn’t sound as optimistic about security conditions in the Brownsville projects. Unlike many of the city’s public housing areas, the Brownsville Houses project doesn’t have security cameras. Jensen wasn’t sure the cameras would have made a difference anyway. Across the street at Van Dyke Houses, Jensen said they have 200 cameras but they haven’t deterred two rapists. “Cameras don’t work,” Jensen said. “The police only harass people, and cameras aren’t any better. People do stupid things.”
Back at the Schwartz Brothers-Jeffer Memorial Chapels in Queens, Yosef Aminov had a message for the murderer and anyone who knows where he is. “You better sell him out,” he said.
Others reminded the mourners to remember the man. “In a tragedy like this, death can be overwhelming,” said Edwin Mendez-Santiago, commissioner of the city’s Department of Aging. “But in the coming days, I know you’ll focus on how he lived, serving the most vulnerable among us. Remember his life, passion, commitment to his family, and community.”
Aminov was laid to rest at the Mount Carmel Cemetery in Queens. A candlelight vigil at the site of his murder is planned after the completion of the family’s seven-day mourning period. “This is not just a loss for your family, but also for our community,” Barron said.
Rabbi Itzhak Abramov urged the mourners to take greater care of their children, a message that would resonate in both neighborhoods. “We write in our hearts and souls to communicate with our children,” said Abramov. “Otherwise, they too may become killers. Children are our happiness and our future. Don’t let them become like this murderer.”
