Badr Elwaseem was buried in Hamburg Monday, 12 years after his birth. Who killed him on Saturday is the focus of an intense investigation. Buffalo and other officials went door-to-door distributing leaflets asking the public for help on who killed the School 45 student.
Erie County Legislator Barbara Miller-Williams said the actual shooting occurred directly in front of her office at Towne Gardens Plaza.
School 45 student Badr Alwaseem was fatally shot in his home by a stray bullet Saturday from an as-yet-unexplained incident. Another man was wounded in the Towne Gardens Plaza parking lot far across William.
Lackawanna Islamic Mosque President Anwar Al-Kali said the wider community rallied behind the family.
"This is a test for all of us, a test for the family. It's a test for us as a community. How are we going to react to things like this? To show the good and the bad," Al-Kali said. "Now we see the good and how people are getting together and supporting this family, that they just lost their child. This is the good that God puts in front of us, to show us: You know what? Yes, this happened, this sad situation happened, but there is a lot of good in people."
Miller-Williams, Mayor Byron Brown and Common Council President Darius Pridgen led the groups of people passing out leaflets explaining the $12,500 reward for information leading to an arrest or indictment in the shooting and just looking for calls to police with information about what happened. Brown said the leafletting is an investment in the community.
"To have elected officials, to have members of the clergy, to have members of violence prevention organizations like Peacemakers and general members of the community who were touched, come out and walk in neighborhoods and ask for information, try to help get information that will solve a crime, that is another kind of community building," Brown said.
After leafletting, the mayor met with Elwaseem family members and a crowd of Muslim community leaders and average citizens to talk about what happened.
