KEY POINTS:
- UC Berkeley marketing professor Przemyslaw Jeziorski, 43, was fatally shot by masked gunman in Athens suburb on July 4
- Professor was visiting Greece to see his twin children and had attended custody hearing one day prior
- Greek police investigating all scenarios including possible contract killing; no arrests made
- Family raising funds for legal representation and repatriation of remains to Poland
- UC Berkeley community mourning loss of “beloved” professor who taught over 1,500 students
Greek authorities are investigating the fatal shooting of a University of California Berkeley professor who was killed in broad daylight while visiting his children in Athens, with police examining all possibilities including what one source described as bearing “signs of a contract killing.”
Przemyslaw Jeziorski, 43, an associate professor of marketing at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, was shot multiple times at close range on July 4 in the residential suburb of Agia Paraskevi, according to Greek police spokesperson Konstantina Dimoglidou. The economist died at the scene after being struck in the neck and chest around 4:15 p.m. local time.
According to CNN, a masked gunman “approached the victim on foot and opened fire from close range,” with seven bullet casings from a 9mm caliber firearm recovered at the scene. The assailant fled on foot immediately after the shooting, as reported by multiple witnesses.
The shooting occurred on Irini Street, near the home of Jeziorski’s ex-wife where their 10-year-old twin children, Zoe and Angelo, reside, according to ABC News. The professor had traveled from California to attend a custody hearing on July 3, one day before his death, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Complex Custody Dispute
According to New Greek TV, the former couple had been engaged in an ongoing custody dispute. The courts had granted sole custody to the children’s mother, a Greek economist whom Jeziorski had met in the United States, while allowing the professor to see his children for one month annually. The recent hearing concerned modifications to these communication terms, with the mother reportedly seeking to prevent Jeziorski from taking the children abroad.
On the morning of his death, Jeziorski and his ex-wife had met with the twins’ child psychologist in Haidari for approximately two and a half hours, according to New Greek TV. The professor had arranged to pick up the children from his ex-wife’s home that afternoon, but the meeting never occurred.
Investigation Underway
A senior Greek police source, speaking anonymously to CNN, stated that “all scenarios are being examined including close family members,” adding that the murder “bore signs of a contract killing.” The source noted that links to organized crime are also being investigated.
According to the victim’s ex-wife’s attorney, Alexandros Pasiatas, as reported by New Greek TV, his client “voluntarily went to the Police, and also handed over her mobile phone. She cannot imagine who could have killed her ex-husband and father of her children.”
Witnesses described seeing a masked man dressed in black who appeared calm during the attack. According to CNN Greece, one eyewitness reported hearing “about six shots” and stated, “There was no silencer on the gun, it was very loud. It was like an explosion.”
Police confirmed to CNN that Jeziorski had no criminal record in Greece.
Academic Legacy
Jeziorski had taught at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business since 2012, holding the Egon & Joan Von Kaschnitz Distinguished Professorship Chair in Business Administration since 2018, according to the university. During his 13-year tenure, he taught data analytics skills to more than 1,500 graduate and PhD students, as stated by UC Berkeley.
“I am heartbroken by news of the tragic and sudden death of Professor Przemyslaw Jeziorski, a beloved member of our marketing faculty and Haas community,” Dean Jenny Chatman said in a statement to the Daily Californian. “While authorities are investigating what happened, our focus is on supporting our community during this difficult period.”
According to Berkeley Haas, Jeziorski had become “a leading expert in quantitative marketing, industrial organization, and the economics of digital markets.” His research spanned diverse areas including mobile money in Africa, sponsored search advertising, and breast cancer prevention, with publications in top-tier journals including Marketing Science and the RAND Journal of Economics.
Professor Zsolt Katona, a colleague at Berkeley, told the university that Jeziorski was “a loving father of two young children and always there if someone needed help,” adding that he “had great influence on the marketing field not only through his research but through his energetic presence and optimism combined with a healthy dose of skepticism.”
Personal Tragedy Compounds Loss
The professor’s death came exactly one month after his father passed away on June 4, according to his brother Łukasz Jeziorski, who wrote on social media that the family had “barely started to get over it” when the shooting occurred, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
According to ABC News, Łukasz Jeziorski has established a WhyDonate fundraising campaign to support legal representation in Greece and the repatriation of his brother’s remains to their native Poland. “Our family is heartbroken, and we are doing everything we can to ensure that justice is served,” he wrote on the fundraising page.
Close friend Chemtai Mungo told ABC News that Jeziorski had arrived in Greece expecting to take his children to Poland for a month, as permitted by prior court arrangements, but encountered “a new dispute that had to be attended to in the courts.”
Career Achievements
Before joining Berkeley, Jeziorski worked as an assistant professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University and served as a visiting scholar at Microsoft, according to CNN. He earned his PhD in economic analysis from Stanford University and held master’s degrees from the University of Arizona and the Warsaw School of Economics in Poland.
Beyond academia, Jeziorski co-founded Keybee, a startup providing data-driven solutions for managing short-term rental properties, as reported by the Daily Californian. He had also provided expert testimony in litigation cases, including what CBS San Francisco described as “a landmark San Francisco opioid trial.”
According to his brother who spoke to ABC News, Jeziorski had fulfilled a dream by purchasing an apartment in San Francisco the previous year and loved playing guitar, watching science fiction movies, and traveling.
As the investigation continues with no arrests made more than a week after the shooting, Jeziorski’s family and the academic community await answers. The case has drawn attention from both Greek and international authorities, with the UC Berkeley community mourning what Professor Panos Patatoukas called to Berkeley Haas “a profound tragedy that reverberates throughout the entire Berkeley community.”
