A 19-year-old had just left a neighbourhood mosque and stepped forward to intervene in a dispute when two men turned their attention to him.

A 19-year-old “Good Samaritan” was shot dead in central Hamilton after trying to stop two men from harassing an older man on the street outside his mosque.

Yosif Al-Hasnawi, the oldest of five children and a first-year Brock University student with aspirations of becoming a doctor, was attending a religious celebration at the Al-Mustafa Islamic Centre on Main St. E. near Wentworth St. Saturday night when he stepped outside with a friend and a younger brother, said homicide unit Det. Sgt. Steve Bereziuk.

That’s when he witnessed some sort of altercation where two men were accosting another man, described as being a senior. When Al-Hasnawi told them to stop, police say the two men then turned on Al-Hasnawi and one of them shot him on Sanford Ave. around 9 p.m.

“This is a result of him literally trying to help, a Good Samaritan,” Bereziuk said. “It’s very sad.”

Witnesses at the scene described hearing a single pop of a gun. There was little blood and several people initially thought he had been shot by a BB gun — but it was a handgun, police say.

At the mosque Sunday, family friends and brothers Talib and Tariq Al-Jalili said they had just come from the grieving family’s home and were at the Islamic Centre to begin funeral preparations.

Talib called Al-Hasnawi a “hero,” and described him as a kind young man who was like family to many in the community.

“It’s a terrible loss for the community,” he said.