On the morning of July 4, an American marketing professor was walking towards his ex-wife’s house in Athens to pick up their two young children. It should have been an unremarkable, if strained visit – the couple had apparently been disputing the terms of custody arrangements.

But Przemyslaw Jeziorski never made it to the front door.

In broad daylight, in this typically quiet, suburban neighborhood of Greece’s capital, he was shot multiple times at close range, according to police. Jeziorski died where he fell, police said, his body riddled with gunshot wounds seen in grim photographs taken in the immediate aftermath.

As eyewitnesses rushed to his aid, the masked gunman fled.

The alleged perpetrator, arrested 12 days later for premeditated murder: His ex-wife’s new partner. The motive, he told police – to prevent Jeziorski from taking away her children.

“I did it all for (her) and our children so that we could have a normal life without problems,” he said, according to a transcript of a statement he made to police in the aftermath of his arrest.