The sky over New York was an almost unreal shade of blue that morning — bright, cloudless and calm. For many who lived through the September 11 attacks, that stillness remains one of the day’s most haunting memories.
Within moments, the peaceful late-summer morning was transformed into a scene of devastation. Smoke billowed over Lower Manhattan, ash and dust filled the streets, and debris fell from the towers as stunned crowds looked up, struggling to process the catastrophe happening above them.
Henryk Siwiak was among those witnesses. He had been working on a construction site near the World Trade Center when, at 8:46am, he saw American Airlines Flight 11 crash into the North Tower. Seventeen minutes later, a second hijacked plane struck the South Tower.
As fear spread through the city, sirens screamed and people fled, Siwiak faced another urgent worry. His construction site was ordered shut down and evacuated, with no clear indication of when work would resume.
For Siwiak, being told to go home did not simply mean missing a paycheck. The 46-year-old Polish immigrant had a wife and two children back in Poland relying on the money he earned in New York. He had come to the United States 11 months earlier after losing his job as a railway inspector and failing to find steady work at home.
Chasing a version of the American dream, he crossed the Atlantic and moved in with his sister, Lucyna, in Far Rockaway, Queens. He took whatever jobs he could find, sending a few hundred dollars each month back to his family.
Lucyna would later describe her brother as someone who could not sit still when there was work to be done. So when the construction site closed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Siwiak did not stay glued to the unfolding news like much of the world. He headed back to Queens, already thinking about how to replace the lost hours.
Henryk Siwiak is remembered as the last person killed on September 11. He is seen wearing the camouflage jacket his family believes may have played a role in his death
Siwiak had been working at a Lower Manhattan construction site when the first hijacked plane hit the North Tower at 8:46am
Once home, he phoned his wife, Ewa, in Poland to reassure her that he was safe. But after that call, he told her he planned to go back out and look for more work.
Ewa begged him not to leave, urging him to remain indoors while New York was still reeling from the terror attacks. Siwiak would not be persuaded. He went to a Polish employment agency and secured an overnight cleaning shift at a supermarket on Albany Avenue in Brooklyn.
Before setting off for the new job, he asked his landlady how to get to Albany Avenue. Together, they looked over a subway map and chose what seemed to be the quickest route: take the A train toward Utica Avenue, then walk the remaining distance.
He left home wearing what Lucyna remembered as his signature outfit: a camouflage jacket, matching pants and black army boots.
Whether that choice of clothing played a role in what happened hours later has troubled his family ever since.
What Siwiak wouldn’t realize before it was too late was that he and his landlady had mapped out a route to the wrong Albany Avenue. Siwiak was meant to be in Flatbush, but he exited the train four miles away in Bed-Stuy.
Much of what happened to him next remains a mystery 25 years later.
What is known is that Siwiak emerged from the subway at Utica Avenue shortly after 11pm and walked west along Fulton Street until he reached Albany Avenue. There, already miles from where he was supposed to be, he made another crucial mistake: he turned right, heading north toward Decatur Street instead of south toward the supermarket.
At the time, the neighborhood was a hotbed of criminal activity and gang violence.
Retired Lt. Commander Tom Joyce, who oversaw the NYPD’s 79th Precinct in Bed-Stuy, described the area to Our News Outlet as not the kind of place someone would want to go wandering around alone at night, nor one that was particularly welcoming to outsiders.
Siwiak was lost, alone and spoke limited English.
Soon the danger would reveal itself.
Lucyna Siwiak says she remembers her brother for his infectious laugh and the joy he brought to her life. She still struggles to accept his death
A mix-up of addresses led Siwiak to his grisly fate. The area of Bed-Stuy where he ended up was a hotbed of criminal activity and gun violence at the time
Somewhere near 119 Decatur Street, police believe he was confronted by a group of ‘unknown individuals,’ an argument erupted and shots were fired.
Witnesses overheard shouting in the street but told investigators they were too scared to look out the window, so they didn’t see anything, Joyce said.
In a city overwhelmed by 2,753 deaths, Siwiak’s murder would become a grim anomaly.
He was the last person known to have been killed in New York on September 11 and the only homicide recorded by the NYPD that day, with the victims of the terror attacks classified separately.
Twenty-five years later, his is also the only killing from that day that remains unsolved.
In another place, on another night, the murder of a 46-year-old father of two might have triggered an enormous police response.
But the NYPD was stretched razor thin on 9/11, consumed by a scale of tragedy it had never before encountered.
Siwiak was shot at multiple times, but struck once in the chest and died. Witnesses refused to speak with police
With the city’s first responders all deployed at the World Trade Center, resources to investigate the murder were scarce
Each year Lucyna quietly mourns her brother by attending a ceremony at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, standing shoulder to shoulder with 9/11 attack victims’ families
Complicating matters was the fact witnesses weren’t willing to speak with police.
The scant physical evidence included shell casings found at the scene, fired from a .40-caliber handgun that has never been recovered.
In the absence of concrete leads, the investigation quickly hit a wall, leaving loved ones and detectives with only theories about who might have harmed Siwiak and why.
For Joyce, the most logical explanation was that he was killed in a botched robbery.
However, Lucyna never bought that reasoning because Siwiak was found with his wallet in his pocket, which contained $75 in cash.
For years, she was consumed by a singular theory: that maybe her younger brother was mistaken for a terrorist.
He was dark skinned, with a prominent brow and a thick, foreign accent. He was also dressed from head to toe in military fatigues.
Police theorized that perhaps he was killed during a botched robbery, even though his wallet was found in his pocket with $75 inside
His family believes he may have been killed in a paranoid case of mistaken identity due to his dark complexion, army fatigues and thick foreign accent
Whatever happened on Decatur Street that night, Lucyna would learn the result only hours later.
The devastating news arrived with a knock at the door.
An officer told her that Siwiak had been killed. Lucyna called Ewa. Siwiak’s 10-year-old son answered and, without thinking, Lucyna told him his father was dead.
For Joyce, the mention of Siwiak’s name stirs an uncomfortable feeling of regret.
He retired from the NYPD in 2006 but counts Siwiak’s unsolved murder among the cases that haunt him most.
Siwiak moved to New York in October 2000, hoping to achieve the American dream for him and his wife and two children, then 17 and 10
A total of 2,753 people were killed in New York City during the 9/11 attacks
There is a $12,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the murder of Henryk Siwiak
Over the years, Joyce has called for the case to be reexamined.
So far, those efforts have come up empty.
Each year on September 11, officers hand out fliers and put up posters around Decatur Street, seeking new leads and offering a $12,000 reward.
When contacted for an update in the case, the NYPD directed Our News Outlet to a podcast episode created by the department in 2021 that a spokesperson claimed had all the ‘latest’ information.
Ultimately, Joyce believes the key to finding Siwiak’s killer will be a witness coming forward with the information they were too scared to share at the time.
‘Twenty-five years is a long time, but the passage of time doesn’t diminish the importance of finding justice for Henryk and his family,’ Joyce said.
‘My hope on this anniversary is that someone who knows something finally comes forward, and that sooner rather than later, Henryk’s case reaches the justice it deserves.’
Until such a time, Lucyna will mark the anniversary of her brother’s death the same way she always has: by attending a ceremony at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the families of 9/11 victims, quietly mourning her loss in the shadow of a much larger tragedy.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS. Callers should refer to the Crime Stoppers Poster Number BK-1375 when calling.
