First reported 8/3/2010 3:40 p.m.
The family of a man killed inside his Brookfield business during an armed robbery last month is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the two men suspected of the crime.
At a press conference at the Brookfield Village Hall this morning, Brookfield Police Chief Steven Stelter introduced a relative of Bashar “Bob” Fakhoury to the media and announced the reward.
“The businesses in Brookfield did charity events to raise money, and it raised 80 percent of the money, and those are the people I want to thank,” said a man introduced as Fakhoury’s brother-in-law, but who declined to give his name.
“It might save another person’s life,” he added. “They were cold-blooded murderers to shoot somebody in the back of the head. They will not hesitate to do it again for any reason.”
Fakhoury, 38, was working alone and getting ready to close up Phoenix Liquor, 8814 Ogden Ave., for the night on July 9 when two men walked into the store. After robbing Fakhoury, one of the men pulled out a handgun and shot Fakhoury once in the head, killing him.
The two men fled the store, but had left the area before police arrived. Police have sifted through evidence left at the scene, including a gun found inside the store, which turned out not to be the murder weapon. The gun, it was determined, belonged to Fakhoury.
So far, police have identified no suspects. Witnesses allowed police to produce a pair of composite sketches of the suspects, which were released shortly after the robbery.
According to Stelter, witnesses happened to observe two men hanging around the area, possibly checking to see if there were other customers in the store, before robbing it.
The first suspect is described as a black male in his mid-20s, between 6-2 and 6-4 tall, with a stocky build, broad chest and black hair in corn rows. The second suspect is also a black male in his mid-20s, about 5-foot-9 with a medium build, dark complexion and clean-cut, short black hair. The sketch of the second suspect also indicates he has a thin goatee.
“The difficulty is the fact that these sketches match numerous people out there on the street,” said Stelter. “Somebody out there has information about this crime. They know who did this and we’re appealing to them to please contact us.”
Asked if police had run into a dead end on the case, Stelter said the department was still working actively on it.
“It’s not at a dead end,” Stelter said. “It is an active investigation. We have investigators working full time on the case.”
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Brookfield Police department at 708-485-1741.
