CNN
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On the morning of July 4th, an American marketing professor walked towards his ex-wife’s house in Athens to pick up two young children. If it was a nervous visit, it should have been inconspicuous. The couple apparently disputed the terms of custody.
However, Przemyslaw Jeziorski never reached the entrance.
Police say he was shot multiple times at close range in this typically quiet, suburban neighborhood in the Greek capital during the broad daylight. Zeziorsky died where he fell, police said his body was plagued by a gunshot wound seen in harsh photos taken shortly afterwards.
The masked gunman fled when an eyewitness rushed to his aid.
The suspected assailant was arrested 12 days later for a planned murder: his ex-wife’s new partner. The motive told the police – to prevent Jeziorsky from stealing her child.
“I did it all for (her) and our kids so we made sure we could live a normal life without any issues,” he said.
One of the most notable aspects of the incident is that statements made to police by suspected perpetrators have been leaked widely to Greek media, including CNN’s affiliate CNN Greece. The statement, authentically verified by senior police sources speaking to CNN, provides insight into how the alleged murder plot was put together, why it was carried out, and provides clues as to who knows what. However, there are also important questions that are open, especially if there are roles.
According to Greek police, she is facing a moral accomplice charge, but she denies it, according to a lawyer who spoke with CNN. Like all suspects in this case, her identity is known on CNN, but cannot be made public due to Greek legal restrictions.
The alleged confession of the perpetrator, as well as other contradictory explanations from the three accomplices who were also leaked to the press, set what is likely to be a long, prominent trial.
Meanwhile, the murder and the aftermath shocked the victims’ friends and family. He says that Zeziorsky is a kind and introverted scholar who loved his children.
Jeziorski, 43, who went under the nickname Przemek or “PJ,” was an economist at the HAAS School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and was a marketing professor, respectively. He was born in Poland and moved to the United States in 2004 to study economics and mathematics at the University of Arizona, continuing to earn his PhD from Stanford.
“He was one of the most keenest people I’ve ever met,” said Robert Kowalski, a friend of Stanford’s victims. “He was a great man and in many ways he was a genius.”
In a statement, UC Berkeley said that Zeziorsky was “passionate about education,” and taught data analytics skills to more than 1,500 alumni and doctoral students over 13 years at the University of California. His research work centered on emerging markets, which took him around the world for field research, and Berkeley described him as “a key expert in quantitative marketing, industrial organizations and economics of digital markets.”
Jenny Chatman, dean of the University of California Berkeley Business School, said he was “grief” with the death of Jeziorsky, who described him as a “loving member of the Faculty of Marketing.”
According to Kowalski, Jeziorski met his ex-wife (Greece national) in San Francisco in 2013. The couple’s twins were born soon.
In 2015, the couple co-founded a startup called Keybee, a short-term rental property management platform.
It is unclear what caused their relationship to fall apart, but Kowalski told CNN that the couple split up around 2020 after moving to Greece during the community pandemic.
According to a statement from the victim’s brother, their children are us and the double citizens of Poland. The children applied for Greek citizenship and were awaiting a decision on that, according to their ex-wife’s lawyer.
According to California court records, Jeziorsky filed for divorce in June 2021.
It is one element of the long-standing custody battle for children who ultimately lived with Greek mothers, and appears to have a provision that father Jeziorsky can take their children with him every summer.
According to Kowalski, Jeziorski asked during the fight for custody, if his children would attend American schools in Greece.
However, his ex-wife was afraid to lose his child sooner, according to a statement to police from her boyfriend, the chief suspect.
“I was worried that he (Jeziorsky) would be taking the kids completely, and that was completely over (my girlfriend). This summer, Plzemek wanted to take the kids to America.
On July 3, the custody ruling ruled that Zeziorsky was actually allowed to take the child with him for a month.
“A month and a half ago we decided to end this pain we’ve been experiencing,” the suspect told police, adding that it was a “good opportunity” given that Eziorsky was in Athens to attend a custody hearing.
The statement details the suspect bought a pistol over a month ago and asked a friend from Bulgaria to “find Przemek and scared him and not take our child away from us.”
He said it all began in Nafplio, a coastal city about two hours from Athens.
The suspect said he, his friends and two others — a man and a teenager from Albania — drove to Athens and waited on the same street as his ex-wife’s house. “I approached him and shot him a few times, but I don’t remember how many times,” he said.
The man had rented a grey Porsche Cayenne as a holiday car, but the murder suspect told police that his accomplice left him on the scene after seeing him shooting the victim.
Police said Zeziorsky died at the scene. There, seven bullet casings were found after a masked gunman fired him in the neck and chest.
Three unknown men, two Albanian and Bulgarians, reportedly face accusations of accomplices, reportedly faced. A Greek police source told CNN on Thursday. CNN was unable to reach those male lawyers.
“My client confessed his actions, but as you can see from the simplicity of what happened, this was not an organized plan. “(Ex-wife), his partner, knew nothing about this.”
“My client had come to me in the past to seek advice. He said he had serious alcoholism issues with his partner’s ex-husband and was worried that he and his mother would grant access to the child. “Now he’s completely devastated what happened. He’s had some issues in the past and I’m going to ask for a psychiatric test.”
A friend of Jeziorski denied allegations that he abused alcohol.
On Friday, CNN Greece obtained police testimony of suspected accomplices from Bulgaria. The statement claims that the suspected accomplice “organised the whole” by the victim’s ex-wife.
He was his friend, the perpetrator, and after obtaining the gun he asked him to “take him to Athens the next day and scare and threaten Paul to “return the children back.”
“In fact, from what he told me, (the ex-wife) didn’t want to give the children to Paul, so I let him do it,” the accomplice said in testimony, adding that the assailant “provided him thousands of euros after doing something we didn’t agree with.”
As for her ex-wife, there is no further information about her testimony, denying all knowledge beyond her attorney’s statement. For unclear reasons, nothing from her statement to the police was directed towards the Greek media.
All of these inconsistencies and other unanswered questions will be addressed in court.
Meanwhile, the victims’ families are dealing with the aftermath of an unimaginable tragedy. The victim’s brother said in a statement that “our family is heartbroken,” but thanked the Greek police and security experts for the arrest.
“We, Przemek’s 10-year-old child, who is a Polish citizen, is now paying attention according to the Greek child’s custody procedures,” the victim’s brother, lambman, said in a statement. “Our main concern is their safety and welfare, helping them reconnect with their families to minimize the trauma they have already endured.”
Jeziorski’s family has started an online fundraiser to repay his body to his hometown of Poland and pay for his legal representative in Greece.
A US State Department spokesman told CNN that the agency is providing consular support to families.
Five people charged on Monday will be sued in court directly, according to Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, a lawyer representing the victim’s family. The court will determine whether the suspect will be remanded in custody while the trial is pending. Dimitrakopoulos told CNN, the trial date will be set at a later stage.
“The victim’s mother and siblings will take the sole custody of the children,” Dimitrakopoulos told Greek media on Friday. The lawyer said, “We spoke with the prosecutors for the minors so that the victim’s mother and siblings have full custody of the children and can live with them in Poland where they are now.”
“They have the opportunity to raise them in a completely protective environment, in a loving environment,” Dimitracopoulos said.
Amy Croffy and Chris Dos Santos of CNN contributed to this report.
