Nothing was more important than family for Hatem Abdullah Othman. He raised his nine siblings when their father died 22 years ago. He went into the grocery business with five of his brothers. He lived in a North Side two-flat above his mother and two brothers.
So on Tuesday when Othman, 40, saw two of his brothers being robbed at gunpoint on closed-circuit television wired between their stores located on opposite sides of the same West Side building, he grabbed a gun and ran out the door.
“He saw that one of the robbers had a gun,” said his sister-in-law, who asked that her name not be used. “When he saw his youngest brother, the 22-year-old, hit the floor, he thought he was shot. So he came running to help.”
Othman, whose legal name is Hatem Abdullah because the Othman somehow got lost when he emigrated from Jordan in 1992, was shot in the chest when he confronted two robbers outside Wisam Foods, 252 N. Kedzie Ave., at about 5:45 p.m. Tuesday. He was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital, where he died.
Just before exchanging gunfire with the robbers, Othman told a customer not to enter the store, police spokeswoman JoAnn Taylor said. Police are still searching for the robbers.
Othman, of the 5100 block of West Argyle Street, was the oldest of 10 children, said his sister-in-law. His youngest brother was born two weeks after their father was killed.
“He is my father,” said second-to-youngest brother, Amer Othman, 23. “Whatever a regular father does, he did for me. … He was the big boss.”
His sister-in-law remembers how people were constantly smiling around Hatem Othman.
“He would make everyone laugh,” she said. “If the mood was down, he would make everybody happy.”
After immigrating to Chicago, Othman worked stocking shelves at a grocery store. He became a U.S. citizen and brought his wife from Jordan soon after. They have four children, ages 8, 6, 4 and 1, his sister-in-law said.
About eight years ago, he opened a neighborhood market and he and five of his brothers now own three stores, all on the West Side, his sister-in-law said. Othman regularly worked 12 hours a day, six days a week.
But the business came with its perils. Othman recently was robbed at gunpoint, and one of the stores was burglarized.
