Ephraim Klein, an ultra-Orthodox Jew from Crown Heights in Brooklyn, New York, was shot to death Tuesday on one of the neighborhood streets.
The motive for the murder is not yet clear, but anti-Semitic sentiments may have played a part.
The Chabad organization reported that the murder occurred at 2 a.m. New York time, when unknown assailants shot Klein as he was driving his car and then fled the scene; Klein lost control of his car as a result.
Rescue teams were quick to arrive at the scene, only to determine the time of death.
Klein’s son was scheduled to be wed in a week’s time, according to reports.
The New York Police Department has launched an investigation into the murder, and detectives are looking into the possibility that the murder was anti-Semitic, but are not ruling out that Klein was an innocent victim of a local gang war.
The incident is the third in recent weeks in which a Jew was murdered. In Tashkent, Uzbekistan, the rabbi of the local synagogue, Avraham Hacohen, was murdered; his family claims the murder was anti-Semitic.