By Howard Koplowitz and christina Santucci
Police were looking for a suspect in connection with the murder of a Laurelton teen whose family runs a Liberian restaurant in South Jamaica, authorities said.
Christian O’Hara, 19, of 218-12 134th Road in Laurelton, was shot in the back and killed at around 3:45 a.m. May 5 in front of 118-07 Atlantic Ave. in Richmond Hill, police said.
O’Hara was involved in a dispute that led to the shooting, police said. He was taken to Jamaica Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
His grandmother, Maima, owns Maima’s Liberian Bistro & Bar at 106-47 Guy R. Brewer Blvd. — the only Liberian restaurant in the city.
A profile of the restaurant appeared in The Village Voice a day before O’Hara’s murder.
Among the exotic dishes sampled by one of the paper’s reporters was a dozen “magnificent” prawns with the shell still attached in red sauce.
“It’s one of the hottest things I’ve tasted all year, and you should eat everything — head, shell and all. That’s the way Liberians do it,” the paper said.
A Maima’s employee declined to talk to a reporter Monday and said O’Hara’s grandmother and mother have not been in the store since the teen was killed.
Police said they were looking for 34-year-old Miguel Viruet in connection with O’Hara’s murder.
Police did not say where Viruet lives and only described him as a 5-foot, 10-inch white man weighing 180 pounds.
O’Hara’s neighbor, Oswald Russel, said the teen used to play with his kids.
“I really felt bad,” Russel said of O’Hara’s death.
Another neighbor who asked to be identified as Mrs. Rose said O’Hara came from a hardworking family and he was liked in the community.
“There is no one in this neighborhood that didn’t love him,” she said.
Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e-mail at hkoplowitz@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4573.
