FRANKLIN, N.H. (AP) – A store owner shot to death had helped the woman accused of killing him when she was about to be evicted last year, say friends and relatives.

Syed Ali Hussain gave Susan Disharoon an apartment at reduced rent, they said. It was the same apartment Disharoon holed up in Tuesday night, holding police at bay for more than nine hours after allegedly shooting Hussain several times with a shotgun.

Longtime friend Saghir Tahir said it was sickening how somebody could hurt Hussain after he helped her so much.

Hussain, 36, was married and had three children. He and his brother opened Twin River Market about three weeks ago. Hussain was shot outside the market, which is on the first floor of the building that housed Disharoon’s apartment.

Disharoon, 48, was arraigned Wednesday on a second-degree murder charge. No plea was entered.

Hussain and his brother, Syed Z. Hussain, got to know Disharoon when she worked as a candy distributor in local convenience stores, said Tahir, a Republican state representative from Manchester. He said when Disharoon ran into trouble, they tried to help.

“It’s sickening how somebody could hurt him who he helped so much,” said Tahir.

Witnesses to the shooting said Disharoon looked up and down the street until Hussain came outside the front door of the market. Peter Rodriguez, who lives across the street, said she ran back inside and returned with a shotgun.

“It was like she was looking around to see when he was going to come out of the store. It was like she was waiting for him,” said Rodriguez’s wife, Sandra.

Peter Rodriguez said Disharoon fired one shot at Hussain and missed. He said she fired again, striking Hussain in the abdomen. The impact drove Hussain against the building.

He said she went closer, yelling at him before she fired a third shot.

“I couldn’t hear what she was saying but she seemed to be really angry,” he said.

After firing the final shot, she walked up to him and kicked him before returning to her apartment, Rodriguez said.

Mohammed Nawaz, owner of N&N Express in Manchester, said it looked like his friend was closing the store when he was shot. “They considered her a friend,” he said.

Tahir said the Hussain brothers had known Disharoon about eight years. About a year ago, she approached them seeking help.

“She came crying that she was under eviction and she had only two days and they gave her the very same apartment where she lived now … at an extremely reduced rate,” he said. “These people went out of their way to help her, not only her but everybody else. She was like a member of the family.”

“She was going through a hard time,” said former roommate John Cleveland. “When she lost her driver’s license she also lost her job.”

Court records show Disharoon’s license was suspended for nine months on Feb. 13 after she plead guilty to one count of driving under the influence of alcohol.

She was fined $600 and ordered to attend an alcohol awareness program.

Court records also show Disharoon was found guilty of driving after revocation of suspension and for driving with a suspended registration in 2001.

Cleveland said he believed the stress of losing her job and being unable to get around caused her to drink more.

“Her drinking got worse and her attitude changed,” said Cleveland.

He said he moved out of her apartment in March because her temper was too hard to deal with.

The brothers, who also own Queen City Convenience in Manchester, extended help to others.

Darlene Amato, 47, said she, her fiance and baby girl were living in a motel when they returned to Manchester from Florida last December. When her fiance told Hussain of their plight while buying coffee at the Manchester store, he handed them the keys to an apartment he owned across the street.

“Without them, we would be in a homeless shelter,” Amato said told the New Hampshire Union Leader.

She said he let them stay there rent free until they got on their feet.

“He used to help the widows and orphans, the needy, the handicapped,” said Tahir. “And he did it in a manner that nobody else knew it.”

A native of Pakistan, Hussain moved to the United States about 20 years ago. He became a citizen three years ago.

Tahir said he dropped by to congratulate his friend.

“He wrapped an American flag around him and said, I’m so proud to be an American.’ I cried with him,” said Tahir.

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