In The News | O'Connor & Partners, PLLC

July 8, 2024 – Brendan J. Lyons, Managing Editor

Troy set to pay $5.77M to survivors of man killed by police cruiser

Officer was driving nearly 90 mph before his SUV drove through a blind intersection and slammed into the small Honda sedan being driven by Sabeeh Alalkawi

TROY — The city of Troy is poised to pay more than $5.77 million to settle a lawsuit filed on behalf of the widow of a 30-year-old pizza delivery driver who was killed last year when his car was struck by a police SUV. The officer sped through a red light at a dangerous intersection with his emergency lights on but allegedly without his siren activated.

The Times Union reported in September that a State Police investigation had confirmed that the Troy police officer, Justin Byrnes, was driving nearly 90 mph seconds before his SUV drove through a blind intersection on Hoosick Street and slammed into the small Honda sedan being driven by Sabeeh Alalkawi.

The agency’s crash reconstruction report concluded the “primary contributing factor for this collision was (the officer’s) failure to exercise due caution, while in emergency operation, when entering an intersection against a red light.”

The findings by the State Police followed an investigation that included interviews, data analysis of the two vehicles’ computers and a review of various camera footage, including a dashboard video from a civilian’s vehicle that captured the crash and confirmed the officer drove through a red light.

The lawsuit was filed against the city of Troy in October on behalf of Alalkawi’s widow, Zinah, and his young sons.

The settlement is expected to be approved by the Troy City Council at its meeting scheduled for Thursday night.

“I am grateful that we were able to reach a resolution on this tragic episode,” Mayor Carmella Mantello said. “My condolences go out to the Alalkawi family and those impacted by the incident. My administration remains committed to creating a safer and cleaner Troy.”

Joseph O’Connor, a Kingston attorney who represents Alalkawi’s family, said they are pleased that the civil case has been resolved.

The crash remains the subject of an ongoing investigation by the state attorney general’s office, which is required under Executive Law to review incidents in which civilians are killed during encounters with police. That investigation began in March 2023, a month after the fatal collision.

If Byrnes is found to have violated policies or driven in a reckless manner, he could face both disciplinary and criminal charges. The officer, who joined the department in 2019 and is well-liked by his colleagues and a member of the SWAT team, remains on duty but has not resumed patrol duties.

The Times Union previously reported that Byrnes may have violated multiple departmental policies as he was responding to a 911 domestic incident call just after midnight Feb. 22, 2023, when the collision took place.

The State Police reconstruction report, which was obtained by the Times Union and has been turned over to the Troy Police Department and the state attorney general’s office, confirmed the officer was at fault.

The Times Union previously reported that Byrnes had violated the department’s emergency response policies and had not activated the siren in his marked 2016 Ford Explorer. Law enforcement sources said turning on his siren may have activated the police cruiser’s dashboard camera, if one was installed in the vehicle. The State Police crash reconstruction report, which makes no mention of Byrnes’ dashboard camera, states only that “it is unknown if the sirens were activated” at the time of the crash.

The report also did not provide any information on why Byrnes was speeding — he was following two officers who were responding to the same domestic violence call and had themselves sped through the intersection seconds before Byrnes’ SUV slammed into Alalkawi’s vehicle.

Alalkawi, the father of infant twin boys, was driving south at 28 mph on 15th Street and applied his brakes to slow as he traveled into the intersection of Hoosick Street while facing a green light, according to the State Police report.

An autopsy found no drugs or alcohol in the bloodstream of Alalkawi, who died from blunt-force trauma injuries when his vehicle was pushed nearly 200 feet west of the intersection as a result of the collision.

Troy Police Chief Dan DeWolf said in February 2023 that Byrnes’ emergency lights and siren were both on at the time of the crash. But O’Connor, the Ulster County attorney representing Alalkawi’s family, has said his private investigators interviewed witnesses who told them they did not hear a siren just before the crash.

Law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation also told the Times Union that Troy police officers routinely do not activate their sirens when responding to emergency calls.

The city’s departmental policy requires police officers to have their lights and sirens on during emergency responses. But there is also a caveat in the regulation: “A siren may be excluded, or used sporadically, only in those situations when the responding officer can articulate sound judgment for doing so.”

The policy, which had not been revised in 11 years, also required Byrnes and the other two officers to slow down at the 15th Street intersection and make sure it was clear — even if they’d had a green light — before proceeding.

The State Police report indicated Byrnes pressed his brake pedal four seconds before the collision with Alalkawi’s vehicle — while traveling 88 mph. But two seconds before the crash, he began to accelerate and then suddenly pressed his brake pedal, “approximately at the time of the collision,” reducing his SUV’s speed to 65 mph as he broadsided the Honda sedan.

A three-story building on the northeast corner of Hoosick and 15th streets blocked Byrnes from seeing the approaching car of Alalkawi, who was heading toward the pizza shop where he worked, about a block south of the crash scene. That building also prevented Alalkawi from seeing the speeding police SUV.

The force of the collision, which occurred just before 1 a.m. and startled multiple onlookers, thrust Alalkawi’s crumpled sedan west on Hoosick Street. The airbags in Alalkawi’s vehicle deployed but did not save his life. He suffered an internal decapitation from the force of the impact, according to a person familiar with the autopsy.

February 10, 2025 – Brendan J. Lyons, Managing Editor

No criminal charges for Troy officer who killed pizza delivery driver

Attorney general’s office says officer who sped through a red light at more than 70 mph did not act “recklessly” under state law

TROY — The state attorney general’s office has declined to pursue criminal charges against a former Troy police officer who sped through a red light on Hoosick Street two years ago and killed 30-year-old Sabeeh Alalkawi, who died when his spine was severed in the collision.

The attorney general’s decision was made despite a State Police investigation that confirmed the former Troy police officer, Justin Byrnes, had been driving nearly 90 mph seconds before his SUV drove through a red light at a blind intersection on one of the busiest thoroughfares in the city.

The State Police report indicated Byrnes pressed his brake pedal about four seconds before the collision with Alalkawi’s vehicle — while traveling 88 mph. But two seconds before the crash, he began to accelerate and then suddenly pressed his brake pedal “approximately at the time of the collision,” reducing his SUV’s speed to 65 mph as his 5,000-pound police SUV broadsided the small Honda sedan.

The State Police crash reconstruction report concluded the “primary contributing factor for this collision was (the officer’s) failure to exercise due caution, while in emergency operation, when entering an intersection against a red light.”

Donald W. Boyajian, an Albany attorney representing Alalkawi’s family, including his widow, Zinah, and the couple’s twin boys, said the family is “appreciative of the effort put into the investigation, (but) is understandably distraught about the ultimate determination by the attorney general not to go forward with prosecution of the officer, given his clearly reckless conduct.”

In this and other cases in which the attorney general’s office has declined to seek criminal charges against officers involved in on-duty collisions, they have noted that an officer responding to an emergency in a marked vehicle “cannot be charged with a crime unless the officer acts recklessly or intentionally.”

There is also a provision of state Motor Vehicle Law that states “the driver of an authorized emergency vehicle, when involved in an emergency operation” may “proceed past a steady red signal … but only after slowing down as may be necessary for safe operation.” That section also stipulates the driver of an emergency vehicle may “exceed the maximum speed limits so long as he does not endanger life or property.”

The statute additionally notes that the law does not “protect the driver from the consequences of his reckless disregard for the safety of others.”

Still, the attorney general’s office asserted in its 22-page report on the Feb. 22, 2023, crash that it would not have been able to prove that Byrnes had acted “recklessly.”

“’Recklessly’ means that the person consciously disregards a ‘substantial and unjustifiable’ risk of death and that their actions are a ‘gross deviation’ from a reasonable standard of conduct,” the report states.

The attorney general’s Office of Special Investigation, which conducted the investigation of the crash, also noted in the report on Alalkawi’s death that it had “not found a case in New York in which a police officer was criminally charged for causing a death when responding to an emergency.”

“There is no question that (Officer) Byrnes caused the death of Mr. Alalkawi; the question is whether he did so recklessly, as defined in the Penal Law,” the attorney general’s report states.

But an administrative law judge for the state Department of Motor Vehicles, who had revoked Byrnes’ driving privileges for 30 days, had determined that the former officer had “acted in reckless disregard to the safety of others.” She concluded that his actions were not shielded by the section of Motor Vehicle Law governing the drivers of emergency response vehicles who pass through a red light or exceed posted speed limits.

Byrnes, who was later terminated by Troy police officials, declined to be interviewed by the attorney general’s office for its investigation. Nine other Troy police officers, including a sergeant, who were interviewed by the office gave conflicting information about their department’s emergency response policies.

“In their interviews, the officers agreed that an officer responding to an emergency had to slow down and make sure the intersection was clear before proceeding through a red traffic light,” the report states. “The officers had different recollections of their emergency response policy.

Some said the officer has to slow down before proceeding through a red light; one said the officer has to stop; another said an officer could only go 20 mph over the speed limit; and one officer admitted he had not read the policy.”

Was the siren on?

The findings by the State Police, released in September 2023, followed their months-long investigation that included interviews, data analysis of the two vehicles’ computers and a review of various camera footage, including a dashboard video from a civilian’s vehicle that captured the crash and confirmed the officer drove through a red light.

The Times Union previously reported that Byrnes had violated the department’s emergency response policies and had allegedly not activated the siren in his marked 2016 Ford Explorer Interceptor. Law enforcement sources said turning on his siren would have activated his SUV’s dashboard camera. The State Police crash reconstruction report, which made no mention of Byrnes’ dashboard camera, inexplicably skimmed over that detail and stated only, and without explanation, that “it is unknown if the sirens were activated” at the time of the crash.

But a transcript of Byrnes’ conversation with a sergeant who arrived moments after the crash indicates that he asserted his lights and siren were both activated as he drove through the red light.

“I slowed down, lights and sirens, I did a quick look, punched it through,” Byrnes told the sergeant, according to the attorney general’s report.

“You had the red, don’t you remember, or no?” the sergeant asked Byrnes.

“I don’t know, sarge,” Byrnes responded.

The attorney general’s report concluded that Byrnes activated his siren six seconds before the crash, when he would have been traveling nearly 90 mph as he approached the intersection. It’s unclear if that would have been enough time for Alalkawi to hear the siren and brake before he drove through a green light at the blind intersection.

Byrnes had been responding to a domestic violence call and following two officers who had sped through the same intersection seconds before his SUV slammed into Alalkawi’s Honda, which was traveling southbound on 15th Street at less than 30 mph. That call, however, turned out not to be a domestic violence incident — a brother and sister were arguing — and the officers were at that scene for only a few minutes.

Video in the investigation included footage from the dashboard camera of a civilian’s vehicle traveling eastbound on Hoosick Street; it captured Byrnes’ SUV, with its emergency lights flashing, driving in the opposite direction and entering the intersection where the deadly crash took place.

Video footage from private security cameras along Hoosick Street, obtained by the Times Union, had confirmed that the two other Troy police officers also drove through the same intersection at high rates of speed and without slowing while responding to the same domestic incident.

The video footage obtained by the Times Union was taken from two cameras affixed to the exterior of a McDonald’s restaurant at the intersection of Hoosick and 15th streets. It illustrates the severity of the crash and also confirmed multiple violations by the officers and potential shortfalls in some of the department’s policies and training.

The speed limit in that area is 30 mph.

Troy Police Chief Dan DeWolf had said following the crash that Byrnes’ emergency lights and siren were both on at the time of the crash. But Joseph E. O’Connor, an Orange County attorney also representing Alalkawi’s family, said private investigators interviewed witnesses who told them they did not hear a siren just before the crash.

The attorney general’s report does not indicate their office interviewed any of those civilian witnesses who were at the scene of the crash. They interviewed one civilian, according to the report, who was driving eastbound on Hoosick Street and whose dashboard camera had captured footage of the collision.

DeWolf and Troy Mayor Carmella Mantello issued a joint statement Monday evening saying the case has “weighed heavily on our community, and we remain deeply saddened by this loss of life. Our thoughts continue to be with Mr. Alalkawi’s family and loved ones.”

They said the department is continuing to improve training and operational policies and has completed the installation of cameras in all marked police vehicles. The department’s efforts have also included “a line-by-line review of vehicle operation policies and procedures for all officers” and instituting “a policy management system to provide checks and balances,” they said.

‘Criminal case is behind’

In Troy, a departmental policy requires city police officers to have their lights and sirens on during emergency responses. But there is also a caveat in the regulation: “A siren may be excluded, or used sporadically, only in those situations when the responding officer can articulate sound judgment for doing so.”

The policy, which had not been revised in 11 years prior to the crash that killed Alalkawi, also required Byrnes and the other two officers to slow down at the 15th Street intersection and make sure it was clear — even if they’d had a green light — before proceeding.

O’Connor, whose law firm has handled numerous cases in which police vehicles were involved in fatal crashes, told the Times Union previously that “by hurtling at an unconscionable speed through a red light, this officer’s conduct took the life of a wonderful member of the community that the city of Troy Police Department was sworn to protect.”

O’Connor, whose firm is in Kingston, represents Alalkawi’s family along with Boyajian.

Last year, the city of Troy agreed to pay more than $5.77 million to settle a lawsuit filed on behalf of Alalkawi’s widow, Zinah, and his three sons.

The settlement included $750,000 in taxpayer funds, $5 million from the city’s insurance carrier, and $25,000 from Byrnes’ insurance carrier.

Byrnes, a U.S. Army veteran who had been a combat medic, had been with the department since 2019.

March 12, 2024 – Kayla Canne

A NY cop ran a red light going 88 mph and killed a young father. He still has his badge.

In a sterile hospital room just before 3 a.m., Sabeeh Alalkawi’s father started counting down the hours until sunset.

His son was dead. He was in shock.

And duty sat heavy on his heart: It was his responsibility to return his son’s soul to Allah by burying him swiftly. Waleed Alalkawi had just until this terrible day’s end to accomplish the task.

State police had other priorities. Sabeeh was dead because a New York police officer slammed his patrol car into the young man’s sedan, killing him almost instantly.

Half a mile away, investigators combed jumbled wreckage for details. Here, in this cold hospital room, a medical examiner was ready to take the body for an autopsy. No autopsy was needed to understand what killed Alalkawi, though.

Another police officer in New York had crashed a patrol car into someone or something with devastating consequences ― just one more example in hundreds of cases being examined in a deep investigation by USA TODAY Network-New York and Syracuse University. The reporting team is looking at cases across New York state, including the death of Alalkawi in Troy.

Muslims bury their dead as they are, with few exceptions. Hours after a death, family members gather to clean the body ― now little more than an empty vessel that carries the face of someone they loved ― working quickly to prevent its soul from lingering untethered for too long.

They dig a grave themselves and position the body at the bottom, laying it on its right side to face the holy city of Mecca. They pray that their beloved is accepted into whatever universe follows this one. And then, only after this duty is fulfilled, do they allow themselves to grieve for the person they lost.

This is what Alalkawi’s father knew. Now, it seemed Waleed and the medical examiner were on their own crash course: Faith colliding with the potential for justice.

He had to make a choice.

Can you bring his body back before the sun falls, the father asked?

NY allows police to break traffic rules. What happens when they crash?

Across New York, a police officer can hurtle down city streets, snub stoplights, crash a car and walk away unscathed — job and reputation intact — even when those collisions kill or maim innocent people.

Troy Police Officer Justin Byrnes sent his 2.5-ton police cruiser barreling through a city intersection at about 88 miles per hour just before he rammed into Sabeeh Alalkawi in the early hours of Feb. 22, 2023.

Our “Driving Force” investigation, assisted by The Central Current in Syracuse, found that a state law that allows police officers to break traffic rules when racing to emergencies is being used to protect them from discipline when they make poor driving decisions and smash their cars along the way.

Byrnes, who was sworn in as a Troy police officer in 2019, is so far no exception.

He was traveling nearly three times the posted 30 mph speed limit that night, according to collision reports. The officer faced a red light. A vacant three-story restaurant building on the corner of the intersection of Hoosick and 15th streets blocked the view of the drivers from both directions.

Byrnes charged forward anyway.

It is likely that Alalkawi, a 30-year-old pizza delivery driver and new father of twins, never saw his end coming.

The police officer made a last-ditch attempt to hit the brakes, but his SUV zipped over the last 100 yards in less than three seconds, a torpedo destined to crumple almost anything in its path. Sabeeh Alalkawi had no chance.

Alalkawi’s family declined interviews for this story but shared notes and photographs through their attorney to show the impact his death has had on them. We asked questions and communicated back and forth this way.

A New York State Police reconstruction report found Byrnes responsible for the tragedy, saying his decision to drive through the red light without caution was the “primary contributing factor” for the crash.

Top police officials in Troy refused to answer questions or comment directly about what happened. They declined to say whether Byrnes turned his siren on as required or whether there is any police footage of the collision. The NYSP reconstruction report said it is unknown whether the sirens were activated, and makes no mention of police footage collected from the crash.

Troy Police also declined to discuss how the agency enforces safe driving behaviors among its officers. A public records request turned up over 100 crashes involving Troy police officers over the last decade.

Byrnes was involved in at least four other incidents, the records show, though it is unclear whether he received any discipline. In one crash, Byrnes reversed out of a parking spot into a civilian’s car waiting in traffic. In another, the officer failed to put his police cruiser in park when he hopped out to chase a suspect on foot. The cruiser rolled into another parked car.

The Troy City Council called a special public meeting with law enforcement officials in October. There, Troy Police Chief Daniel DeWolf insisted his officers know they must slow down before entering an intersection ― especially one with a red light. “If you don’t make it to the call, you’re not helping anyone,” he said.

So, will Byrnes face consequences for his choices on duty the night Alalkawi was killed? Unless an investigation by the New York State Attorney General’s Office determines he acted recklessly or with negligence, the police officer will not face criminal charges because of the state law that offers him broad immunity when responding to a call.

A year after Alalkawi’s death, his family is still waiting for that decision.

The Troy Police Department said it will wait to conduct its own internal investigation once the AG’s report is complete. Until then, Byrnes is still working for the Troy Police Department — on desk duty.

‘Danger zone,’ but NY officer barreled into it at speed

Just north of Albany and across the Hudson River, where New York State Route 7 becomes Hoosick Street, a royal blue sign welcomes visitors and residents alike to the city of Troy.

“HOME OF UNCLE SAM,” it reads in bold white lettering. A portrait of a familiar American patriot stares back at you, a top hat wrapped in a blue-and-white banner of stars, one finger pointing firmly in a call to action.

Samuel Wilson, the inspiration behind the iconic image, was one of the earliest American settlers of this Rust Belt city in 1789 — building his community with bricks he packed together from clay deposits off Mount Ida. Locals have clung to the identity. There’s an Uncle Sam bowling alley, the Uncle Sam Bikeway and even an Uncle Sam bus stop.

Troy rose as an early industrial center for the nation, producing iron and steel that workers would float down the river to New York City. Later, it became a manufacturing stronghold for shirt collars and the birthplace of an all-female union crucial to the labor movement.

Today, the city is a hub for video game development, fueled by the presence of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and other factors. It’s home to about 51,000 people.

At the center of it all is the intersection where Alalkawi was killed. Hoosick Street is a four-lane, two-way strip of asphalt that connects Troy to the rest of the state. On one end it bleeds into a highway leading to Latham, Albany County. On the other, endless pavement runs all the way to Vermont.

It is arguably the city’s most dangerous road.

On social media, in news stories and in traffic studies stretching back at least a decade, residents said they go out of their way to avoid the congested corridor because it does not feel safe. After a teenager died in a crash there in 2022, the City Council president called the area a danger zone.

The Troy Police Department and many New York police agencies defend their decision to speed to any scene they are dispatched to, even on a perilous road like Hoosick.

In Troy, the police department’s emergency response policy does not limit how fast officers can drive, and DeWolf confirmed the department lacks technology that could track the live speed of its patrol cars. Without it, a supervisor wouldn’t know to ask an officer to slow down, even if they wanted to.

Seconds before Byrnes crashed into Alalkawi, video shows two other Troy police officers heading to the same 911 call tore through the same intersection.

An independent reconstruction expert hired by the family’s attorney used surveillance footage from nearby businesses to clock their speeds. The first officer went through the intersection at 50 miles per hour, nearly twice the legal limit, according to the attorney. The second sped through somewhere in the mid-70s.

An event data recorder unit, or “black box,” recovered from Byrnes’ SUV and analyzed by state police showed he was driving 88 miles per hour five seconds before the crash.

“This isn’t just a rogue police officer,” said attorney Joseph O’Connor, who is representing Alalkawi’s family in a wrongful death lawsuit. “It’s the behavior of an entire department, at least on that night.”

“This is a police department that is deciding ‘We’re not going to be supervised and our officers are not going to be disciplined,'” O’Connor added. “… When the behavior of the police officer becomes more dangerous than the event they are responding to, it becomes a problem.”

Troy, NY, police officer kills man who had a green light

Sabeeh Alalkawi could almost see the pizza shop.

Just down the road, inside a two-story home repurposed into a family-owned restaurant, sat a small-town classic: Amante Pizza.

It’s the type of place where you can look straight back into the kitchen and see workers slinging flattened discs of floury dough up in the air until they come down in perfect circles. A glass display case offers up a dozen or more creations by the slice. Unlike a straight Italian pizzeria, this shop adds a Mediterranean flair: The Amante special layers grilled beef under green peppers, mushrooms, salsa and a yogurt sauce.

Friends had given Alalkawi a job delivering those pizzas. And it was demanding: Sixty-hour weeks with late nights often blurring one day into the next.

But the tips in his pocket bought food for the growing twin boys waiting for him at home, on this night probably asleep in their beds by now.

Photos capture the trio as inseparable: Alalkawi smiling for a selfie, his sleeping babies strapped into car seats behind him, fleece blankets tucked around their little legs. Alalkawi sitting at the dining room table, one twin perched on each knee, the boys angling for a phone propped up in front of them. Alalkawi, drowsy in bed despite the sunlight, his wide-eyed twins jostling him awake.

This is who he was working for — who he was trying to protect.

It was just before 1 a.m. and the end of his shift was crawling closer with each mile.

On this brisk February night, Alalkawi again climbed into his 2012 Honda Civic and set off toward the pizza shop. It was now less than a quarter mile away. A tomato-red sign and stringy cheese pies beckoned him forward, the road ahead looking nothing but ordinary.

Green light. Empty intersection. Hungry customers waiting.

Alalkawi pushed ahead.

Minutes earlier, a police radio had started chattering across town with its next call: There was a domestic disturbance a few blocks away from Amante Pizza, police said.

Justin Byrnes flicked on the emergency lights of his 2016 Ford Explorer and jolted the steel vessel forward. He was the third in a convoy of cruisers who decided to do the same. Byrnes had been with the Troy Police Department for three years. After that long, any police officer knows well that when someone calls 911, you hurry to respond.

Flying under the streetlights that bring life to Hoosick Street, Byrnes passed an auto shop, a synagogue and an elementary school. The local Hilton Garden Inn and a Popeyes.

The intersection at 15th was next. And Byrnes would soon realize that he set himself on an accelerating trajectory that would defy the red light in his way.

Maybe he saw the pizza delivery driver coming at the last second. Maybe he realized his mistake. Byrnes started pressing down on the brake, but he’d been hurtling down the road at nearly three times the speed limit.

There was not enough time.

His cruiser exploded into Alalkawi’s sedan, ripping the man’s car from the southbound lane and sending it spinning west over a median and into a McDonald’s parking lot.

Twisted metal shrouded Alalkawi’s body as he careened past bystanders. The taillights on his crumpled car screamed against the darkness of the night as it flew through space. Only then did the police officer come to a stop.

‘Verily, unto God do we belong and, verily, unto Him we shall return’

The cemetery was empty. It was the last place Sabeeh Alalkawi’s body would travel that day: after the crash at Hoosick Street, after the cold aluminum table at Samaritan Hospital, after the funeral home and the mosque in Latham.

Someone had recently razed six acres of trees and thicket here to create this holy burial ground for Muslims near East Greenbush. It would be their final stop in this worldly life and the first toward an unseen realm that marks their true home.

Waleed Alalkawi had waited all day for this difficult moment. The medical examiner had released his son’s body in time to be buried before sunset, but only three other people were laid to rest here in this new cemetery. And the father was scared to leave his son so alone.

Nothing about this day made sense. His son was dead. Dead? And a police officer had killed him. Alalkawi’s body was so battered that his two brothers couldn’t bear to help their father with the solemn cleansing ritual their religion asks of them.

Working in solitude, Waleed Alalkawi had scooped handfuls of warm water over torn flesh, washing his son’s body three times. He had folded his son’s arms across his chest, right hand over left, and had wrapped this child of his in three large sheets of white cloth.

He followed the hearse that carried his son’s body as it drifted along city streets, ending at this barren field surrounded by brush. Now, the daylight was fading. It was time to bury his son, whether he was ready or not. He started to dig.

Others would join him in the cold February wind as the sun began to fall. They dug and dug until they were sending shovelfuls of earth above themselves.

Consider what it meant to carve out this tomb for a man taken from them in mere seconds.

Sabeeh Alalkawi’s wife, Zinah, and their twin boys watched from inside a car in the distance. His father and brothers lowered his body into the hand-dug grave, resting it facing their holy city, years before they could have imagined taking on this task.

The Qu’ran tells us we belong to Allah and to Him, we shall always return. Alalkawi is not alone ― even in this empty cemetery ― because his soul has now reached the afterlife. What comes next for those left behind? The Qu’ran tells us it is patience.

In a final act of love, Waleed Alalkawi covered his son’s grave with dirt, offered a prayer to his creator and rejoined the rest of their family. Dreadful duty complete, he allowed his son to find the peace he was promised.

Even as he waits for his own.

What’s your story?

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We want to hear your story, and your questions that remain after the experience. Fill out our online form, or scan the QR code if you’re reading this story in print.

This investigation will continue into the early summer. You may be contacted by our reporters for further details about your experience as part of our continuing coverage of police vehicle crashes.