BURLINGTON — More than 100 people gathered at Roosevelt Park in Burlington’s Old North End Tuesday evening for a vigil remembering Hussein Mubarak, the man police say was fatally shot in the head July 7 on a neighborhood street.
Surrounded by family, friends and neighbors clad in black and white, Mubarak’s sister, Hamara Mubarak, described a sibling who was committed to supporting other people.
“He was just a very caring, loving person altogether,” she said. “And very funny.”
An online fundraiser Hamara Mubarak organized last week raised almost $19,000 for her brother’s funeral, which was held Tuesday. She said the support was impressive and showed the local community could rally together around a common cause.
Other speakers briefly described Hussein Mubarak, who was 21, as someone who could always lighten the mood and who always made time for people he was close with despite juggling many responsibilities.
Photos of Hussein Mubarak were taped up at the park, and people wrote out memories they had with him on post cards that were pinned to a corkboard. Balloons weighted down by flowers were affixed to the fences around the park’s basketball courts.
Police said Mubarak died just before midnight Friday after he was shot in the head on Luck Street, just a block north of Roosevelt Park. His death was Burlington’s first homicide in more than two years, officials said last week.
As of Tuesday night, police had not released any information about a suspect.
The shooting was Burlington’s 16th gunfire incident of 2022. According to data, the number of times guns were recklessly fired in the city this year is on a steep rise.
