Police say fellow law student killed Hockessin man during drug deal

A fellow Temple University law graduate shot Shazim Uppal to death last month during a drug deal in a nursing home parking lot 100 yards from his family’s stately Hockessin home, police said Wednesday.

New Castle County police identified the killer as Benjamin G. Rauf, 25, of Westerlo, New York, and said they suspect the motive was robbery. Uppal and Rauf knew each other from Temple’s Beasley School of Law, police Chief Col. Elmer Setting said after a news conference.

Rauf was a May graduate of the Philadelphia law school, where Uppal, 27, graduated in July.

JoAnne Epps, dean of Temple’s law school, issued this statement: “The loss of Shazim Uppal, a 2015 law school graduate, was obviously devastating. It was made all the more sad and difficult by today’s arrest of another recent graduate of the Temple Law School” for his murder.

Uppal was shot multiple times in the chest on Aug. 23 while sitting in his black 2007 Audi A8 sedan, police said. His body was found the next night after workers at the Franciscan Care Center told police the occupant had not moved for hours.

On Aug. 26, county police said a “substantial” amount of marijuana had been found in Uppal’s car. On Wednesday, Setting said the amount was “excessive,” and that both Uppal and Rauf were players “in the game” of selling marijuana.

They also said they don’t know who was supposed to be selling marijuana to whom that night, and remain puzzled why the large load of marijuana was left behind. “That’s a great question,” Sgt. Gustavo Zeissig said when asked why authorities think the killer didn’t take the drugs. “It’s still something we’re following up on.”

Rauf’s arrest in New York on Monday capped an intensive three-week investigation since Uppal’s body was discovered, with Setting and County Executive Tom Gordon praising what Gordon, a former county police chief, called unprecedented cooperation between county police, Attorney General Matt Denn’s office, the FBI and New York authorities.

While police believe the motive was robbery, they are not certain. Examining phone records and interviews, among other investigative techniques, helped police focus quickly on Rauf and eliminate other potential suspects, police said. Zeissig said police believe Rauf acted alone.

Much work remains to be done, Zeissig said. “We still have follow-up investigation to do,” he said. “Forensic evidence needs to be checked, DNA evidence to be examined.”

Police said a gun was recovered Monday night at Rauf’s home that matched ballistics from the crime scene when Rauf was taken into custody by New York State Police. He is being held there pending extradition to Delaware, where he faces charges of first-degree murder and possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony.

The crime scene was across the street from his parents’ 5,800-square-foot home in the 100 block of St. Claire Drive in the Reserve at Hockessin Chase, a neighborhood of grand brick, stucco and siding homes. Several members of the extended Uppal family, Pakistani-Americans considered one of the largest Muslim families in Delaware, live in the St. Claire home.

County police said Rauf was known to law enforcement officials in New York. An item in The Daily Freeman of Greenville, New York, showed that Rauf was arrested by state police in August 2014 and charged marijuana possession.

At his home in the upstate town of Westerlo, near the capital of Albany, a woman who identified herself as Rauf’s stepmother said she had no comment on his arrest for murder of his former classmate.

Hagi Uppal, the victim’s uncle, said Wednesday that members of the extended Uppal family, which includes 26 cousins in the Bear-Glasgow area, remain in mourning and shocked by the idea that their relative who was going to be a lawyer had anything to do with drugs, especially as a dealer.

None had ever seen Shazim with drugs, using drugs or even heard rumors he was selling them, Hagi Uppal said.

“He was not that like that,” he said.

Hagi Uppal suggested that perhaps his nephew “was carrying somebody else’s stuff, we don’t know ... This is all a big shock to the family still, a big shock, but what can we do?”

With the arrest, “at least we have some peace,” he said.

While police said Uppal and Rauf were friends at Temple, the rest of his family was unfamiliar with the man accused of gunning him down, Hagi Uppal said.

“We do not know him at all,” he said, “not at all.”

Reporter robin brown contributed to this report.

Contact senior investigative reporter Cris Barrish at (302) 324-2785, cbarrish@delawareonline.com, on Facebook or Twitter@crisbarrish. Contact robin brown at (302) 324-2856 or rbrown@delawareonline.com. Find her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter @rbrowndelaware.