A hardworking Pakistani livery driver killed in his car during an apparent botched robbery died chasing the American Dream, his grieving roommates told The Post Monday.
Naveed Afzal, 52, came to the United States two years ago and worked tirelessly, frying chicken at a restaurant in Red Hook by day and moonlighting as a car service driver at night — all the while, sending the profits home to his wife and four kids overseas, the roomies said.
Late last month, Afzal’s dream was cut short. His body has been delivered to his family back home after he was shot in the head during what police sources say was a late-night robbery attempt in Brooklyn on June 20.
Now, it’s not clear how his wife will be able to make ends meet, according to his shaken friends.
“She will struggle without Naveed — he was sending her money every week,” Mohammad Rundjwa, one of Afzal’s two Borough Park roommates, told The Post on Monday.
“We both know his family, who are good people,” the 62-year-old continued, adding that he had been Afzal’s neighbor in Pakistan. “His girls go to a private college in [the Pakistani city of] Faisalabad, which is expensive.”
Afzal was shot at about 10 p.m. that Thursday as he sat in the driver’s seat of a black Mercedes-Benz outside a Lincoln Place apartment building in Prospect Heights, cops said in a statement.
It’s unclear what led up to the shooting. But police said two passengers got in the backseat of the car before one flashed a gun and shot a single round that hit Afzal in the face.
The two unknown suspects then ran off.
EMS workers rushed Afzal to New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital in critical condition, but he died from his wounds three days later, cops said.
The city medical examiner ruled the killing a homicide — although the NYPD did not confirm that he died during an attempted robbery.
“We told his wife that he had a very serious injury and was in the hospital, so pray to God for his healing,” said Abdul Majeed, his other roommate. “The doctor called her to tell her he’d expired — and he was not here anymore.”
“I have spoken to his wife — she is in a very bad condition,” Majeed, 67, continued. “She’s horribly sad, she’s been crying a lot.”
Cops described the suspects as two men with dark complexions, both between 18 and 25–years old.
One man wore a black hoodie, black pants and black sneakers, police said. The other wore a blue hoodie, gray pants and black sneakers.
Neither has been caught.
Afzal spent his first two years in the country cooking fried chicken at US Fried Chicken in Red Hook, where he worked the weekly day shift, Majeed said.
But his roommates — with whom he shared a daily breakfast of tea and eggs — encouraged him to drive for Uber, a career path they both took themselves.
Afzal sold property he owned in Pakistan and bought the car that he hoped would put his kids through college, the roomies said.
“He was very hopeful when he got an Uber account that he could make more money for his family,” Majeed said. “He was always thinking about how he could support the family.”
He wanted to join the rideshare company, they said, but his account approval was backlogged.
In the meantime, he drove the night shift for Junior Express Car Service. He’d only been on the job for about 10 days before the shooting.
“It’s safer to drive for Uber than the car service, because the car service driver has cash,” Rundjwa said. “Everybody knows Uber drivers don’t have cash. Plus, Uber tracks my ride and has all the information about the customer.”
“He was a very nice, very kind, very helpful man,” Majeed said of his departed friend. “He liked America — he was chasing the American dream.”
“We miss him,” Rundjwa added. “We really miss him.”
But for his family, the problems are just beginning.
His devastated wife cannot leave the house for three months, in accordance with Islamic custom, his friends said.
And she will likely struggle to pay the bills and put the children — which includes the couple’s 15-year-old son and three older daughters — through school without his financial support, the roommates added.
“He had about $5,000 in the bank here in the US,” Rundjwa said. “Hopefully we can get that money to send to his family. But we don’t know how.”
Otherwise, the outlook is dim.
When asked if Afzal’s wife had family she could rely on for money, Majeed replied, “I think not.
“Economically, Pakistan is not good,” he said. “So everyone finds it hard to survive.”
Police are asking anyone with information about the shooting to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
The public can also submit tips on the Crimestoppers website, https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, or on X, @NYPDTips.
