UC Berkeley professor killed in Greece, shot by masked attacker
UC Berkeley professor fatally shot while in Greece to visit children
Przemys?aw ?PJ? Jeziorski, a UC Berkeley professor, was fatally shot in Greece on July 4, while visiting his children, leaving loved ones grieving and calling for justice.
BERKELEY, Calif. - Friends, family, and colleagues are mourning the loss of a beloved UC Berkeley professor, who was fatally shot while visiting Greece earlier this month.
Przemysław Jeziorski, 43, an associate professor of marketing at the Haas School of Business, was killed July 4 in a suburb of Athens. He had traveled there to pick up his twins, according to friends and family.
Media reports say as Jeziorski was approaching his ex-wife's residence, a masked gunman shot him multiple times, killing him. The attacker fled the scene on foot. No arrests have been made.
His family said on a fundraising page that he was the "victim of a terrible crime," and the "perpetrator is still at large."
Jeziorski, known to many as "Przemek" or "PJ," had been living in San Francisco. He regularly traveled to Greece in the summer to see his children and bring them to visit his family in his native Poland.
"It's very shocking… I messaged with him the week of July 4th. He was in Greece. He usually goes there in the summer to pick up his kids and it's just… we don't want to believe it," said his close friend Chemtai Mungo, as she wiped away tears.
Custody dispute and ongoing investigation
Mungo said he had been in Greece for a custody hearing.
"He had planned to be in the courts that week for a custody conversation and hearing," she said. "And as his lawyers will say, he’s had some challenges with that, trying to get to an agreement."
Jeziorski was remembered as a brilliant academic and a devoted father.
"He loved his kids and he liked to spend as much time with them," Mungo said. "He was going through a difficult process of separating from somebody, but he really tried to center his kids."
Mungo said she was struggling to refer to him in the past tense.
A brilliant mind and devoted father
"He's incredibly smart. He is very sweet. He will make you and most people laugh. He was full of life. He was really brilliant and had founded a company, was doing very exciting market analytics work, doing work in India and Kenya, supporting developing economies. He was a really good guy," she added.
His younger brother, Łukasz Jeziorski, shared a statement with KTVU:
"Przemek's studies and family were very important to him. He cared about his family. He fought for them until the end. He wanted to bring his children to his hometown of Gdynia, Poland, as he did every year. He planned a trip to Disneyland in Paris. He was very family-oriented and friendly. He never refused to help. He had always wanted to go to the USA; it was his dream. He also dreamed of buying an apartment in San Francisco. He fulfilled that dream last year. My mother and I were supposed to go to his place this year; he was very keen on it. He loved math, playing the guitar, music, and sci-fi movies. He loved traveling and had practically seen the entire world. He loved interacting with people and was very sociable. I'm four years younger than my brother. But we were like twins. We understood each other without words. We had the same interests; we both listened to metal music and watched the same movies and TV shows. We went on trips around the world together every year. We visited Argentina, India, and Turkey; he took me to the States. The States was my first trip abroad. I saw the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, the Sequoias, and San Francisco. This trip changed me greatly. This death and the circumstances surrounding it are impossible to accept. It will be very difficult for us."
When asked what justice would look like for her and Jeziorski’s family, Mungo said the only thing they truly want is something they can never have.
"We would want him back, but you know, that’s not an option," she said tearfully. "But it's just, whoever is responsible is being found and put to task and that we can support his children. And I think all of us are trying hard to think about how to keep his memory alive and to remind his kids."
Her heart is with the children, who are now left to grow up without their father.
"They're 10 years old… they love their dad… He was teaching his kids to code games, because they loved video games… To make it an intellectual process, he was teaching them how to code games that they would play. It's really heartbreaking. My heart breaks for his brother, for his mother," she said.
Jeziorski’s death came about a month after the passing of his father in Poland. The family is hoping donations can help with legal efforts abroad and in the U.S., as well as the repatriation of his remains to Poland.
Haas School of Business Dean Jennifer Chapman released a statement Friday saying she is heartbroken by Jeziorski’s "tragic and sudden death."
As of now, the university has not announced an official memorial, but colleagues say they hope to organize a tribute later this summer, once the fall semester begins.