TIMELINE: Murders of missing USF students Zamil Limon and Nahida Bristy<\/a><\/p>\nAbout a dozen friends of the victims filled the courtroom \u2014 standing in for families who are unable to be there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are shocked that the place that is our safe place, our homes, our own kitchens \u2014 they were murdered there,\u201d said Rifatul Islam, a friend of the victims.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Friends say they plan to attend every hearing, supporting the victims\u2019 families who are grieving in Bangladesh, nearly 9,000 miles away.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a lot to process because, see, when we come here, thousands of miles away from home, they are our family, our everything here,\u201d Islam said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Zamil Limon\u2019s brother, Zubaer Ahmed, said both families are struggling to process the loss, and if he had one more chance to speak to his brother, he knows exactly what he would say.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were the best brother I could have,” Ahmed said. “You were very supportive from the very beginning. You encouraged me to study a lot, concentrate, be a better person.”<\/p>\n
He wants people to remember both Limon and Nahida Bristy as they were: driven and full of promise.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want people to know both of them, my brother and Nahida, were bright, hardworking, jolly and they always put a smile on their face,\u201d Ahmed said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to Ahmed, both came to the United States to build a future.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are full of dreams. They came to the United States to build a better future, and their lives matter,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Limon was randomly paired with Abugharbieh as a roommate just two months ago. Ahmed said his brother raised concerns early on.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the very beginning, he shared with us that roommate is very unpleasant, unsocial,\u201d Ahmed said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He added that Limon and another roommate filed a complaint after learning about Abugharbieh\u2019s prior criminal record.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe and his other roommate filed a complaint against Hisham when they came to know that he had prior criminal record,\u201d Ahmed said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, the family is calling for accountability \u2014 both in the courtroom and from the housing system that placed the roommates together.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Ahmed is preparing to follow in his brother\u2019s footsteps. He said he has applied to a teaching assistantship at Texas Tech University this fall, though returning to the U.S. will be difficult.<\/p>\n
\u201cBreathing the same air is very difficult for me, but my brother also wanted me to be a professor someday. So it\u2019s also his dream to see me as a successful person and having a contribution in society,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite the loss, Ahmed says his brother continues to inspire him and would tell him, \u201cThank you for everything.”<\/p>\n
State Attorney Suzy Lopez said prosecutors plan to take the case before a grand jury on May 7. At that point, they anticipate an indictment and an arraignment will be set for Abugharbieh to enter his pleas.<\/p>\n
Lopez said her office is still determining whether to seek the death penalty. Ahmed said his family supports the death penalty and has faith in the justice system as the case moves forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Family and friends of Zamil Limon and Nahida Bristy are calling for justice and remembering the two lives…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-250877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}