Greek authorities said they’re investigating the deadly shooting of a University of California, Berkeley, professor as a murder after he was gunned down in Athens while visiting his children amid a custody dispute.
Local police said a masked gunman walked right up to Przemyslaw Jeziorski, who taught economics and marketing at Berkeley, and shot him several times July 4 near his ex-wife’s home.
Investigators said Mr. Jeziorski, 43, died at the scene. No suspect has been arrested in the case.
A Greek police official told CNN that the slaying “bore the signs of a contract killing,” so potential links to organized crime are being investigated. Authorities said close family members are also being looked into as part of the murder probe.
Relatives said Mr. Jeziorski, who was a Polish native, was in Greece to attend a child custody hearing. He had gone to court the day before he was killed.
“I never thought something like this would happen to my family,” Lukasz Jeziorski, the victim’s younger brother, posted on Facebook. “My brother went to meet his beloved children — Zoe and Angelo. He was murdered in cold blood on the road near the house where his children live.”
UC Berkeley also mourned the professor’s death by posting a lengthy profile Monday about his 13-year tenure with the school.
Mr. Jeziorski joined the college’s Haas School of Business in 2012 and became a leading researcher in quantitative marketing, industrial organization and the economics of digital markets.
He also taught a popular marketing analytics course for MBA students.
Colleagues held Mr. Jeziorski in high esteem for his intelligence, work ethic and stubbornness to solve complex problems.
“Between his expertise and his scholarship and his teaching, it will be impossible to replace him,” said professor Zsolt Katona, a close friend who helped hire Jeziorski to the business school. “If there is any consolation in these moments, it’s knowing the lasting impact that he left on so many people’s lives.”
