Slain Youngstown shop owner's best friend tells heartbreak of the loss

YOUNGSTOWN

The Masjid Al-Khair mosque was the most crowded it had been for nearly 25 years Friday when mourners gathered for a service for Abdullah Nagi Mahdi, the owner of a South Side store who was killed in a robbery attempt Wednesday.

Missing from the crowd, however, were some of the people who loved him most: his wife, father and seven daughters, who live in Yemen.

Mahdi, 29, lived and worked here so he could send money home to support them. His mother died just five months ago.

To help support Mahdi’s family, his friends have set up a fund in his name at Huntington Bank. Donations can be made at any branch.

Some friends have been in touch with his father, and say he has started to accept the loss of his son.

“But the first day when we called him and told him what happened, he said, ‘Please send my son to me. I want to die with him. I want to get in the grave with him.’ That’s how much he loved his son,” said Mehmet Kusuni, one of Mahdi’s closest friends. “And his daughters said, ‘Please bring my father.’”

Kusuni, 35, of Canfield, met Mahdi about 12 years ago at the mosque, and said the two became inseparable.

“He was my best friend. He was like my brother."

Read more about their extraordinary relationship and the friend Kusuni is missing in Sunday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.