In 2001, Mark Stroman (pic­tured) shot sev­er­al peo­ple in Texas whom he believed were Arabs in response to the ter­ror­ist attacks of September 11. Stroman killed at least two men and wound­ed Rais Bhuiyan, who is from Bangladesh and was work­ing at a Dallas gas sta­tion. Stroman received the death penal­ty for the mur­ders and is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on July 20. Bhuiyan, who lost the use of one eye as a result of the shoot­ing, has spent the last few months seek­ing clemen­cy for Stroman. In a recent inter­view with the New York Times, Bhuiyan said, ​“I request­ed a meet­ing with Mr. Stroman. I’m eager­ly await­ing to see him in per­son and exchange ideas. I would talk about love and com­pas­sion. We all make mis­takes. He’s anoth­er human being, like me. Hate the sin, not the sin­ner. It’s very impor­tant that I meet him to tell him I feel for him and I strong­ly believe he should get a sec­ond chance. That I nev­er hat­ed the U.S. He could edu­cate a lot of peo­ple. Thinking about what is going to hap­pen makes me very emo­tion­al. I can’t sleep. Once I go to bed I feel there is anoth­er per­son that I know who is in his bed think­ing about what is going to hap­pen to him — that he is going to be tied to a bed and killed. It makes me very emo­tion­al and very sad and makes me want to do more.” Stroman has been moved by Bhuiyan’s actions and agrees, ​“The hate has to stop.” Read full-text of interview below.

The Hated and the Hater, Both Touched by Crime
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS

Mark Anthony Stroman, 41, a stone­cut­ter from Dallas, shot peo­ple he believed were Arabs, say­ing he was enraged by the ter­ror­ist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He killed at least two: Vasudev Patel, an Indian immi­grant who was Hindu, and Waqar Hasan, a Muslim born in Pakistan.

A third shoot­ing vic­tim, Rais Bhuiyan, 37, a for­mer Air Force pilot from Bangladesh, sur­vived after Mr. Stroman shot him in the face at close range. Mr. Stroman admit­ted to the shoot­ings. He is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on Wednesday.

Mr. Bhuiyan, despite being part­ly blind­ed in his right eye, has spent the past sev­er­al months cre­at­ing a Web site with a peti­tion and meet­ing with offi­cials in Texas to try to per­suade the state to spare Mr. Stroman.

Mr. Bhuiyan was inter­viewed over the phone. Mr. Stroman respond­ed to ques­tions in a type­writ­ten let­ter dat­ed June 26 that includ­ed a pho­to­graph of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001: smoke is seen bil­low­ing out of the North Tower and United Airlines Flight 175 is moments away from strik­ing the South Tower. The ellipses in his answers are his.

Q Mr. Bhuiyan, you were work­ing as a clerk at a friend’s ser­vice sta­tion on Sept. 21, 2001. What do you remem­ber?

A I was robbed a cou­ple of times. It was a dan­ger­ous neigh­bor­hood. People would come into the store to sell tele­vi­sions and com­put­ers. One time a man came with a gun and I thought he want­ed to sell it to make mon­ey. He said, ​“If you don’t give me mon­ey I will blow your head off.” On Sept. 21, it was Friday around 12:30 in the after­noon.
Business was slow. It was rain­ing cats and dogs. The neigh­bor from the bar­ber shop had come in and brought chips and drinks. Then there’s a guy com­ing into the store with a hat and sun­glass­es and a ban­dan­na and a gun in his hand. I thought it was a rob­bery. I said, ​“Don’t shoot me please. Take all the mon­ey.” He said, ​“Where are you from?” He was four or five feet away from me. I felt cold air in my spine. I said, ​“Excuse me?” It was a dou­ble-bar­rel gun. I felt a mil­lion bee stings on my face at the same time. Then I heard an explo­sion. I saw images of my par­ents, my sib­lings and my fiancée and then a grave­yard and I thought, ​“Am I dying today?” I looked down and saw blood was pour­ing from my head. I placed both my hands on my head to get my brains in and I screamed, ​“Mom!” I looked and he was still star­ing at me and I thought he might shoot me again if I don’t fall and he doesn’t think I’m dead. The floor was get­ting wet with my blood. Then he left the store. I could not believe he shot me. I thought I was dream­ing, going through a hal­lu­ci­na­tion. I didn’t do any­thing wrong. I was not a threat to him. I couldn’t believe some­one would just shoot you like that.

Q What hap­pened next?

A I want­ed to go out­side. I went to the bar­ber shop and they ran away. They saw me full of blood run­ning like a slaugh­tered chick­en and they thought the guy was behind me. I saw my face in the bar­ber­shop mir­ror and I couldn’t believe it was me. (He begins to cry). A few min­utes before, I had been a young guy in a T‑shirt and shorts and ten­nis shoes. (He begins to cry more force­ful­ly). Sorry, I haven’t cried for the past nine years. I was lucky because there was an ambu­lance in the area. I was ask­ing God, ask­ing for for­give­ness, say­ing I would do my best. Reciting vers­es from the Koran. I said I would ded­i­cate my life to the poor. I felt my eyes were clos­ing and it felt like my brain was shut­ting down slow­ly.

Q What was the extent of your injuries?

A There were 38 pel­lets in my face. I couldn’t open my eyes or talk or open my jaw. I couldn’t even eat or drink any­thing. It was very painful to even swal­low because I was shot in my throat. After a few hours in the hos­pi­tal I could open my left eye. My face was heav­i­ly swollen. There were gun­shot wounds. My face was hor­ri­ble. I couldn’t believe it was my face. I prayed, ​“Please God, give me my face back.” ( Mr. Bhuiyan was dis­charged the day after being treat­ed; he was told he did not have health insur­ance. For the next sev­er­al
months, he slept on people’s couch­es and had to rely on physi­cians’ sam­ples for med­ica­tion, includ­ing painkillers and eye drops. He had sev­er­al oper­a­tions on his right eye; he now has only lim­it­ed vision in it.)

Q Mr. Stroman has admit­ted try­ing to kill you. Why are you try­ing to save his life?

A I was raised very well by my par­ents and teach­ers. They raised me with good morals and strong faith. They taught me to put your­self in oth­ers’ shoes. Even if they hurt you, don’t take revenge. Forgive them. Move on. It will bring some­thing good to you and them. My Islamic faith teach­es me this too. He said he did this as an act of war and a lot of Americans want­ed to do it but he had the courage to do it — to shoot Muslims. After it hap­pened I was just sim­ply strug­gling to sur­vive in this coun­try. I decid­ed that for­give­ness was not enough. That what he did was out of igno­rance. I decid­ed I had to do some­thing to save this person’s life. That killing some­one in Dallas is not an answer for what hap­pened on Sept. 11.

Q If you had the chance to meet Mr. Stroman, what would you say to him?

A I request­ed a meet­ing with Mr. Stroman. I’m eager­ly await­ing to see him in per­son and exchange ideas. I would talk about love and com­pas­sion. We all make mis­takes. He’s anoth­er human being, like me. Hate the sin, not the sin­ner. It’s very impor­tant that I meet him to tell him I feel for him and I strong­ly believe he should get a sec­ond chance. That I nev­er hat­ed the U.S. He could edu­cate a lot of peo­ple. Thinking about what is going to hap­pen makes me very emo­tion­al. I can’t sleep. Once I go to bed I feel there is anoth­er per­son that I know who is in his bed think­ing about what is going to hap­pen to him — that he is going to be tied to a bed and killed. It makes me very emo­tion­al and very sad and makes me want to do more.

•

Q How are you doing, Mr. Stroman?

A ​“i’ve only 25 days left until Texas Straps Me to a Gurney and pumps me full of tox­ic bug juice, But then again, we all face an Ending at some time or anoth­er. All is well, Spirits are high, i sit here with a Cup of Coffee and some Good ole Classic Rock play­ing on My radio, how Ironic, the song ​‘Free Bird’ by Lynyrd Skynyrd…”

Q What do you think of Rais Bhuiyan’s efforts to keep you from being exe­cut­ed?

A ​“Yes, Mr Rais Bhuiyan, what an inspir­ing soul…for him to come for­ward after what ive done speaks Volume’s…and has real­ly Touched My heart and the heart of Many oth­ers World Wide…Especially since for the last 10 years all we have heard about is How Evil the Islamic faith Can be…its proof that all are Not bad nor Evil.”

Q Tell me what you are think­ing now, a few weeks before your sched­uled exe­cu­tion.

A ​“Not only do I have all My friends and sup­port­ers try­ing to Save my Life, but now i have The Islamic Community Joining in…Spearheaded by one Very Remarkable man Named Rais Bhuiyan, Who is a Survivor of My Hate. His deep Islamic Beliefs Have gave him the strength to Forgive the Un-forgiveable…that is tru­ly Inspiring to me, and should be an Example for us all. The Hate, has to stop, we are all in this world togeth­er. My jesus Faith& Texas Roots have Deepened My Understanding as well. Its almost been 10 years since The world stopped Turning, and we as a nation will nev­er be able to for­get what we felt that day, I sure­ly wont, but I can tell you what im feel­ing Today, and that’s very grate­ful for Rais Bhuiyan’s Efforts to save my life after I tried to end His. A lot of peo­ple out There are still hurt and full of hate, and as I Sit here On Texas Death watch count­ing down to my Own Death, I have been giv­en the chance to open­ly Express whats inside this Texas Mind and heart, and hope­ful­ly that some­thing good will come of this. We need More Forgiveness and Understanding and less hate.” Mr. Stroman signed off, ​“Texas Loud& Texas proud…TRUE AMERICAN.… Living to Die – Dying to Live.”

(T. Williams, ​“The Hated and the Hater, Both Touched by Crime,” New York Times, July 19, 2011). See Victims and New Voices.

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