A man was arrested for gunning down 46-year-old Marcin Iwanowicz outside a Brooklyn methadone clinic on Christmas Eve, cops said.
Shamar Williams, 57, was arrested Wednesday and charged with murder, robbery and criminal possession of a weapon in the fatal shooting, cops said. He is expected to be arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court in the coming days.
Iwanowicz was shot once in the chest down the block from a Belmont Ave. methadone clinic where he was being treated near Junius St. in Brownsville around 9:48 p.m., cops said.
“I feel nothing,” the victim’s father, 70-year-old Stanislaw Iwanowicz, said of the arrest. “After my son died, I feel like something is missing from myself. I wish I got killed, not him. It’s terrible. I cannot sleep, I cannot eat. I cannot even think about it. Whatever I touch, I see him. Everything.”
Medics rushed Marcin to Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center, where he died.
Williams has 12 prior arrests since 1987, including six robberies and one arrest for criminal possession of a loaded firearm, cops said. He lives less than half a mile away from where Marcin was shot, police said.
Detectives told the victim’s family they’re pursuing additional suspects in Marcin’s case, Stanislaw said.
“I think since they got one, they’ll get another,” the victim’s father said. “The whole situation was on camera. They have their faces, they have everything. Sooner or later, they’ll catch him, no matter what.”
Marcin had spent years in treatment for opioid addiction, which he developed due to painkillers he was prescribed to manage the pain from a shoulder injury, his brother told the Daily News.
“He had an addiction to painkillers. Methadone can help with that,” Cezary Iwanowicz, 40, said shortly after his brother’s death.
He was being treated at St. Jude Treatment Center when cameras captured footage of the victim arguing with his killers, the victim’s father said.
“They have the picture, they don’t have the voice,” Stanislaw said. “They argued with Marcin and he argued with them. I think they wanted to rob him.”
Marcin’s father said his son’s wallet was missing from his back pocket after the shooting. It contained an OMNY card, an EBT card for food stamps and $200 his father gave him to purchase groceries for Christmas, Stanislaw said.
“They took everything,” the grieving father said.
Marcin was fatally shot nine years after his mother, Krystyna Iwanowicz, was killed in a hit-and-run collision while crossing the street in front of the family’s Midwood apartment building on Oct. 8, 2016.
Stanislaw lost his job during COVID, then suffered an aneurysm that left him disabled. He had to take a loan to pay for his son’s funeral, leaving him thousands of dollars in debt, he said.
“It’s not just one problem,” the victim’s father said. “It’s problem after problem. Nine years ago my wife got killed. Now my son got killed. It’s too much for one family.”
