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Arrest in shooting death of Garfield convenience store clerk

Connecting clues, detectives have cracked the cold-blooded murder of a Garfield convenience store clerk with the arrest of an undocumented Polish immigrant, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said.

Photo Credit: Cliffview Pilot


Krzystof A. Jastrzebski, 39, who lived just down the block from the store, used a stolen handgun to shoot the owner’s son in the head before taking cash from the register, the prosecutor said.

Jastrzebski

Responding to a Jan. 24 emergency call, police found the body of Ahmad M. Alsurakhi on the floor behind the counter of Billy’s Convenience Store om McArthur Avenue.

The case remained unsolved until tipsters pointed detectives toward Jastrzebski, who Molinelli said had broken into a Shaw Street residence and taken cash, jewelry and a loaded semi-automatic handgun were stolen 10 days before the murder.

Investigators then discovered that, in the hours before the killing, Jastrzebski pointed and fired the gun at an acquaintance inside an Elizabeth Avenue apartment during an argument, the prosecutor said.

It missed the target “and  instead went through a door frame into the floor,” Molinelli said.


The victim didn’t report the shooting, but it “has now been confirmed through witness interviews and a crime scene examination,” the prosecutor said.


Investigators found Jastrzebski on Wednesday in the custody of United States Immigration and Customs (ICE).  The feds turned him over to Molinelli’s detectives, who brought him back to Bergen County, quesionted him and charged him with murder, felony murder, and armed robbery in the Alsurakhi killing; aggravated assault and illegal weapons possession for the Elizabeth Street incident; and armed burglary and theft for the Shaw Street burglary.


PHOTO: Courtesy Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office

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