DEARBORN — The bodies of two Dearborn men killed in a Detroit car crash on May 17 were on their way to Lebanon on Thursday to be buried in their family homeland.

Mahmoud Bazzi, 20, L, and Hussien El-Zaghir, 26, were killed on May 17 when an SUV ran a yield sign and crashed into the side of their Chevrolet Malibu on Detroit’s west side.

Mahmoud Bazzi, 20, and Hussien El-Zaghir, 26, of Dearborn, died that morning after an SUV ran a yield sign and crashed into the side of their Chevrolet Malibu as it prepared to turn off of Greenview Avenue near Whitlock Street on Detroit’s west side, according to police.
The two men were cousins.

A witness told WXYZ-TV (Channel 7) at the scene the driver of the SUV was traveling at a high speed, never hit his brakes, looked about 17 years old, smelled of alcohol and fled the scene, leaving two injured passengers in his own vehicle and leaving El-Zaghir and Bazzi to die.

Detroit police Sgt. Erin Stephens Bell said an investigation of the hit-and-run crash is ongoing and that no arrests have been made.

El-Zaghir’s brother Ali El-Zaghir, said the two cousins spoke in the past about wanting to someday be buried in Bint Jebail, the south Lebanon village their parents immigrated from.

“They asked to be buried back home. They asked to be buried together,” Ali El-Zaghir said during memorial services at the Islamic Institute of Knowledge in Dearborn on Monday.

Many wore t-shirts bearing a photo, taken one week before their death, of the two shaking hands at a wedding,

Several family members described them as inseparable.

“Those guys were a dynamic duo,” said El-Zaghir, 33. “They sparked up a room when they walk in… “This was felt all throughout the community. It was felt in Canada and it was felt overseas… That’s how much they were loved.”

Bazzi and Hussien El-Zaghir worked at a family-owned dollar store in Dearborn.

“These were two well-known, respectable men,” said a visibly distraught cousin, Khaled Saleh, 25.

“My right-hand man, he was the realest person I ever knew,” he said about El-Zaghir, patting his chest. “He always made me laugh. We did everything together… We even dressed alike. I’m just gonna miss that.”

He said the way in which his cousins died made it that much worse for the family.

“It’s crazy how I lost him… One car accident and I lose two relatives. That’s what hurts… But what can you do but accept it. You just got to be strong,” Saleh said.

“If they catch him,” he said about the hit-and-run suspect, “there’ll be a little bit of a sense of relief.”

“He was a quiet kid,” said Nahid Ayoub about Bazzi, who was her second cousin.

“He’d go an extra mile for you. He had a lot going for him… They were both just starting their lives. It’s devastating.”