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Jersey City shooting victim Douglas Rodr?guez heroically saved customer

Jersey City Shooting: Immigrant With ?Big Dreams? Was Among Victims

He was a beloved worker at the market who had emigrated to New Jersey with his family from Ecuador.

By Andrea Salcedo
Dec. 12, 2019
Updated 7:08 p.m. ET

Douglas Miguel Rodriguez did not always make sandwiches and stock shelves at a kosher supermarket in Jersey City.

Thousands of miles away, in Guayaquil, Ecuador, his hometown, Mr. Rodriguez was a middle-class family man who worked as a financial manager for an insurance company, his brother, William Rodriguez Barzola, said.

But he lost his job when the company went under and Mr. Rodriguez, struggling financially, moved to New Jersey with his wife and daughter.

His lack of English proved a barrier to a white-collar job in his adopted home, his brother said, so he had to settle for whatever he could get to pay his bills.

That is why he was working inside the JC Kosher Market on Tuesday afternoon when two assailants armed with high-powered weapons stormed the store. Mr. Rodriguez, 49, was killed along with Leah Mindel Ferencz, who owned the market and Moshe Deutsch, a rabbinical student from Brooklyn.

In the days since the rampage, much of the focus has been on Jersey City?s small but growing Hasidic community, after investigators said that the kosher market had been intentionally targeted and that one of the assailants had made anti-Semitic comments online.

But Jersey City is one of the most diverse communities in New Jersey, with about 40 percent of the city?s population born outside the United States, according to the census. Many neighborhoods in the city have become attractive enclaves for immigrant workers, like Mr. Rodriguez.

?It?s a city of Chinese grocers and Indian shopkeepers and recent college graduates, all striving for a better life in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty,? New Jersey?s Attorney General, Gubrir S. Grewal, said at a news conference on Wednesday.

But Mr. Rodriguez was not just a regular worker at the store, Mr. Rodriguez Barzola said. He was friends with the owners of the store, Moishe Duvid Ferencz and his wife Mrs. Ferencz, as well as many of the clientele.

?Customers would know him as the man with the nice smile,? said Mr. Rodriguez Barzola in a telephone interview from Ecuador. ?He would always wear a smile of love and care.?

For Mark Schwartz, a regular customer who would often duck into the market twice a day, Mr. Rodriguez was the man who would prepare his lunch, remember his favorite snacks or help him find an item when he was having trouble.

?This guy, he knew everybody by their name,? Mr. Schwartz said. ?He was a wonderful guy.?

Mr. Rodriguez would talk about his personal life and share pictures of his wife, Martha, and their 11-year-old daughter whenever Mr. Schwartz would stop in.

Mr. Rodriguez told him he had waited some 10 years to become a father, which he said was one of his greatest accomplishments, Mr. Schwartz said. They named their daughter Amy Milagros, miracle in Spanish, because after years of trying to conceive, they finally had a child, Mr. Rodriguez Barzola said.

?The relationship with Martha and Amy was extraordinary,? Mr. Rodriguez Barzola said. ?They were a family full of love and affection.?

His brother said Mr. Rodriguez was living a comfortable life in Ecuador before his company, Seguros Bolivar, went bankrupt in 2014 and laid him off.

After two years of trying to find a similar-paying job, Mr. Rodriguez, who friends and family often called ?Miguelito,? left his parents and four siblings for Harrison, N.J., along with his wife and daughter.

?He had the hope of getting an office job or a bank job but language barriers made it difficult for him to work in these areas,? Mr. Rodriguez Barzola said.

Mr. Rodriguez worked at another kosher market first, before his boss recommended him to Mr. Ferencz, who offered him a job as a helper in his kosher market, Mr. Rodriguez Barzola said.

Mr. Rodriguez, who worked six days a week except Saturdays, would rarely complain, Mr. Schwartz said. He did lament about not being able to make it to Sunday service at Nueva Vida Church in Newark.

But, Mr. Schwartz said, work was the priority.

?He was so happy to be here,?? he said. ?He had big dreams.?

Now, with the family?s breadwinner gone, Mr. Rodriguez?s relatives are turning to strangers to cobble together enough money to send his body back to Ecuador to be buried.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/douglas-rod ... victim-of-the-jc-shooting

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/12/nyr ... jersey-city-shooting.html

I saw Shea on tv who said there are phony groups collecting money for the victims, he said to contact the city if you want to donate. I also feel sorry for the students in Sacred Heart School who have bullets in their building and probably in the classrooms. Also mention was either a daycare or school next to the Kosher store. The city should reach out to those kids.

thank you! Sad story and although I Commend the officer who passed, its sad that the mayor makes it a point to promote the death of one human over another. they were both humans at the wrong place wrong time. the police officer will be taken care of by his union/job/organization.

Here is the Gofundme for Douglas Rodriguez, the 3rd victim.

"This page is created to help the family of my uncle, victim of the Jersey City shooting, Douglas Rodriguez. Douglas Rodriguez came to this country for better life with his wife and daughter. He was a devoted husband, friend, and father, He was a God-loving, honest and hard-working person was who always available to help others. He had been working at the store for about a year before this devastating and unexpected loss. We would appreciate any help from the community to help his family cover funeral expenses. He was very much the provider in his family, so anything you can give will help his wife and daughter greatly. Thank you and God bless.

Esta pagina es creada para ayudar a mi familia, mi tio es una victima del Jersey City Shooting(Douglas Rodriguez)
Ecuatoriano que vino a trabajas a este pais por mejor calidad de vida con su esposa e hija, el era un buen esposo, amigo que amaba a su familia, trabajador y muy buena persona, siempre disponible para ayudar a los demas que creia en Dios.
El estubo trabajando en la tienda por alrededor de un ano, siempre a tiempo para hacer su trabajo, esta es una perdida inesperada. queremos ayuda de la comunidad y nuestros conpatriotas. para ayudar a la esposa e hija y los gastos funerales el era el proveedor de su familia.
Gracias por todo Dios los bendiga."

https://www.gofundme.com/f/douglas-rod ... victim-of-the-jc-shooting