Stray shots kill W. Phila. educator

A MOTHER of four who was the director of her own elementary school and day care in Overbrook was a bystander killed by reckless gunfire Saturday night, police said.

"She was an excellent person," said Homicide Lt. Mel Williams. "You have a real victim here."

Hafeezah Nunrid-Din, 31, was heading to a car with her father on Malvern Avenue near 58th Street shortly before 8 p.m. when two young men ran past her and her dad, Williams said.

Shortly after, gunshots rang out, according to police. It's believed the bullets were intended for the two men who ran past Nunrid-Din but instead, they hit her once in the left shoulder and once in the right side of her back, police said.

She was taken to Lankenau Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 8:34 p.m., police said.

The shooter or shooters and the two men who ran past Nunrid-Din remain unidentified, but Williams said police have been getting positive leads.

"We're going to do everything we can to stay on this case and remain on it until we get the people responsible for these actions," he said.

According to the website for Nunrid-Din's school, the NUR Academy, on 63rd Street near Lansdowne Avenue, the school had toddler and preschool programs as well as kindergarten and an elementary school for kids up to 12 years old. The school was considered an Islamic religious day school, the website said.

Nunrid-Din had a master's degree in education from Cabrini College and a bachelor's in education from Cheyney University, the site said.