Jeweler Killed in Apparent Robbery

Yekutiel Zeevi owned YZ Jewelers in Westport.

Police are looking for the man who shot and killed a Westport jeweler on Thursday night in what police are calling a targeted robbery.

Yekutiel Zeevi, 65, Westport, was shot inside YZ Manufacturing, 431 Post Road East, Suite 18, on Thursday night and died at Norwalk Hospital.

Police believe the victim and the shooter had met before.

This is the type of jewelry store where you have to make an appointment and get buzzed into the store, investigators said.

The man believed to be the shooter had responded to an ad the victim had placed, saying that the store buys and sells diamonds.

The man police are looking for had gone into the store on Wednesday afternoon for an appointment, police said.

Zeevi and Ronen Konfino, of New York City, were both shot. Konfino, an associate of Zeevi, called 911 around 10 p.m. on Thursday and said he and another person had been shot.

Police had to force their way into the business. Inside, they found the two men suffering from gunshot wounds and began treating the victims until EMS units arrived and transported the victims to Norwalk Hospital.

Konfino was in critical condition, but has been upgraded to stable condition.

He provided a description of the shooter: a man 5 feet, 10 to 6 feet tall, early- to mid-40s, with a medium build and thin hair. The shooter was wearing black glasses, dark wool hat, blue or aquamarine jacket with white stripes. He was driving a four-door boxy vehicle.

The State Police Major Crime Scene Unit is assisting in the investigation.

Westport police ask anyone who was in the area of Compo Shopping Center between 9:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. to call the Westport Police Department Detective Bureau at 203-341-6080 if they had saw anything suspicious. 

Zeevi was the father of Tali Zeevi-Trager, whose spoke with NBC Connecticut in 2005 about her battle with leukemia. She had fought cancer once and learned, soon after getting married, that she was sick again. Tali died in 2007 at the age of 34, Westport Now reports.

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