A man has been arrested after a prominent Pakistani scholar was fatally shot Friday morning just steps away from his home in Southeast D.C. in what police are calling a neighbor dispute.
Hilman Jordan, 45, of Southeast, was detained and charged in the death of 64-year-old Jawaid Bhutto, his upstairs neighbor and a well-known former professor of philosophy at Sindh University in Pakistan. Jordan faces a count of first-degree murder while armed.
Police said they responded to the 2600 block of Wade Road at approximately 11 a.m. Friday after receiving a report of a shooting.
When officers arrived, they found the victim suffering an apparent gunshot wound. Bhutto was taken to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries. There, he was pronounced dead.
"We have a neighborhood dispute. Somebody decides to introduce a firearm into that dispute. Now we have a family who's lost somebody," said D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham.
Friends and family of Bhutto said they are overcome with grief.
“He was my closest confidant,” said Nafisa Hoodbhoy, the victim’s wife. “We shared everything.”
“I would say to him that, you know, 'I would much rather pass away before you,' and he would say, 'No, I couldn’t bear that so I think I’m going to go before you,'" she said.
Bhutto stopped teaching after arriving to the United States more than a decade ago, but his impact lived on, said Mushtaq Rajpar, one of his former students.
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“He was an intellectual," Rajpar said. "He was not only a teacher. A giant man. He was a literary man. A very well-read person.”
“He was so engaging,” he said. “Some of his students back home in Pakistan are very, they are activists … you know, they are teachers. He produced people.”
His wife said she’s been hearing nonstop from people in Pakistan who are mourning him.
"They're crying in Sindh," she said. "Every home has turned into kind of place where people are bemoaning the loss of someone people considered one of their own."
Hoodbhoy added she and Bhutto had talked about returning home to Pakistan for a couple of weeks to reconnect with their loved ones.
"We were planning that trip when this happened yesterday," she said.
