A Long Island doctor active in politics in his native Uganda has mysteriously vanished – leaving only a trail of blood out the door of his apartment, cops and neighbors said yesterday.
After breaking down the door of Dr. Joseph Zirabamuzaale Kazingo, police found evidence of a struggle but no sign of the 67-year-old emergency-room physician
“At this point we’ve characterized him as a missing person under suspicious circumstances,” said Detective Lt. Kevin Smith of the Nassau County police.
“The back door appears to have been forcibly entered. There’s glass everywhere inside.”
Investigators questioned neighbors near the Westbury apartment Kazingo used for sleeping between shifts and searched the area with bloodhounds – but turned up no trace of the father of seven.
Smith declined to comment on the blood in the apartment, but several neighbors said investigators told them a considerable amount had been found leading out the door and into the driveway.
But Kazingo’s wife’s car, which he had been driving since his Mercedes Benz went to the shop for repairs, remained parked in the building’s garage, according to his landlord’s daughter, Margaret Daly.
Kazingo has worked in the overnight shift in the emergency room of Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow since 1998, and lives mainly in Lincolndale in Westchester, police said.
“Why would anyone want to hurt him or harm him?” asked his niece Florence, when reached at the Lincolndale home. “He never spoke of any troubles whatsoever. This is a shock.”
Fellow hospital workers grew concerned when Kazingo missed two consecutive shifts earlier this week and called police, who discovered the puzzling scene at the Westbury apartment Thursday night.
Neighbors said Kazingo – who stood a diminutive 5-foot-3 – looked much younger than his age and was in phenomenal shape, frequently running in marathons. He was also an avid online stock trader, they said.
Kazingo moved to the United States more than 30 years ago, and was very active in a cultural group called Ggwanga Mujje, which raised money for AIDS orphans in Uganda, said the group’s chairman, Joseph Matovu.
The doctor and his wife, Caroline, 59 – both devout Catholics – had seven adult children, Matovu said.
“He was well educated, successful in his career, a family person – very religious,” Matovu said. “He was a little conservative in his ways; he was traditional in terms of culture.”
Kazingo was also the one-time head of the Diaspora Democrats of Uganda, a U.S.-based political arm of a conservative opposition party in his homeland, and had been vocal in advocating for free elections there.
One Westbury neighbor described Kazingo as a dedicated and compassionate doctor who was always there to help a neighbor in need.
“He was a the type of guy that if you were sick, he’d come right over and take care of you,” said Barbara Prinz, 59. “His bedside manner was unbelievable.”