Family Seeks Answers In Store Worker Slaying

LOWELL, Mass. -- A Lowell family's world was shattered in an instant and now they are looking for answers to explain the stabbing death of Mazen Alwarad, a store clerk who was working a second job to better care for them.

Watch Report

Alwarad, 37, was almost done with his overnight shift at the 7-Eleven on Chelmsford Street Saturday when he went outside to smoke, according to Middlesex County District Attorney Gerard Leone.

Alwarad was set upon and stabbed by three men in the parking lot. Police have offered no motive for the attack.

"He got stabbed in the chest. How can you have it in your heart to just stick a knife in someone's chest? He was genuinely a good guy," said his sister-in-law Nadia Khabazeh.

Alwarad was taken by medical helicopter to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where he was pronounced dead.

The Syrian immigrant was a jeweler by trade, but picked up extra money working shifts at the convenience store. He leaves a wife and 3-year-old son.

"Look at his son; is it fair this boy has to grow up without a dad?" said Khabazeh.

The killing was the third in two years in the same parking lot. In June 2006, Bonla Dy, 24, of Lawrence was shot and killed. Eighteen months later, Jose Villanueva was shot. Police have made arrests in both killings.