CHICAGO (WLS) — Loved ones gather Saturday to remember a beloved boater whose body was pulled from DuSable Harbor last weekend.

Chicago police are investigating his death as a homicide.

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A photo of Nabil Abzal, endearingly called Captain Bill, with a beaming smile welcomed his former boating community as they gathered in sadness over his passing. His friends believe he faced an attack.

“He was trying to escort unauthorized individuals away and sadly, didn’t make it back to his vessel,” explained Alan Brandt Malelo, a friend and the vigil’s organizer. “He’d always tilt his hat and grin with those pressed lips.”

This smiling image is how his fellow sailors wish to recall the man who cherished the harbor where, according to police, he met his untimely end.

“Our community is very close, so we all reached out to one another,” shared Frank Jaeger, another captain and friend. “It’s heartbreaking to discover it was him.”

Flowers, a balloon, and a photo of Abzal marked an entrance at DuSable Harbor, close to C dock, where mourners held a private vigil to honor the 63-year-old by scattering petals in the marina waters from where his body was retrieved last weekend.

“It’s hard to accept. People like Captain Bill are losing their lives just for staying overnight on their boats, and that shouldn’t happen,” stated Brandt Malelo. “They boarded his boat. At 2:45 in the morning, they were partying, vaping, drinking, doing what party-goers do, and he awoke to it.”

While the circumstances surrounding the Plainfield man’s death remain murky, police are ruling it a homicide. Brandt Malelo says his years-long friend and boat neighbor may have been attacked by a group.

“And, he took it upon himself to go to the end of the dock here, and there was a violent act at the end of the dock here and he was thrown in the water, and he never made it back,” Brandt Malelo said. “It’s a tragedy. It’s a modern-day tragedy, and he died protecting us.”

Police have not confirmed what might have led up to the alleged murder, but the owner of a nearby restaurant told ABC7 that they have given police surveillance footage as part of the homicide investigation.

So far, Chicago police say no one has been arrested.

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