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Cousin of Rochester Hills man killed by fake DTE workers: 'I wish he didn't open the door'
First they tied up the wife, and beat her. Then they forced 72-year-old Hussein Murray down the stairs into the basement, and he never came up - beaten to death.
FOX 2 - Ring video shows a pair of DTE impersonators knocking on the door of a Rochester Hills home, claiming to look for gas leaks.
"I kept on saying I just wish he didn’t open the door to myself when I saw that." said cousin Zaher Murray.
Unknowingly, the homeowners let in killers posing as DTE workers. First, they tied up the wife and beat her.
Then – they forced 72-year-old Hussein Murray down the stairs into the basement, and he never came up - beaten to death.
"We're always going to think about this, it’s always going to be in our head how he died, and how he suffered. What was he thinking when he was dying," Zaher said. "This is what hurts us the most."
Hussein known by nearly all as "Sam" like a brother, to his cousin Zaher Murray.
The two texted about their next business venture – two days before their world turned upside down last Friday.
"They took his life but they took part of our soul with him," Zaher said.
He said Sam was the one in the family everyone looked up to, relied on, and had a booming voice.
"I took a bullet in my chest in 1991 in my store, during a robbery," Sam said once during a City Council meeting. "But yet, I stayed in Hamtramck. I love Hamtramck."
Sam escaped death back in 1991 – when he and his brother were shot during a robbery at their jewelry and pawn shop in Hamtramck.
But not this time, a larger-than-life presence in their family now vacant.
"The day he got buried was the day he was supposed to have the gathering with the family," Zaher said. "He was preparing a feast and the meat was still down in the basement and everything."
The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office have both men in custody: 37-year-old Carlos Hernandez during a traffic stop, fleeing to Louisiana. And a 39-year-old man was caught – after getting pulled over in Plymouth.
"We are going to have house them and feed them in prison while my cousin is gone forever," Zaher said. "How do you cope with that? You don’t."
Were the Murrays targeted or was it random? At this point, it depends who you ask, it’s unclear if anything was taken from the house.
We do know – the same two fake DTE workers came to house twice, denied entry the first time.
"I just hope they pay the price dearly for it," Zaher said. "This time keep them in jail don’t let them out."
Left: Victim Hussein Murray. Right: Murder suspect Carlos Hernandez