Bashar Fakhouri owned the store, which is located on the 8800-block of Ogden Avenue, and lived in south suburban Alsip.
Police say they are looking for two men who fled the scene. They released sketches of the persons of interest Saturday afternoon.
Relatives say the father to a 4-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter worked hard to make a good life for his wife and family.
They say he decided to move the liquor store he and his brother owned together to the suburbs a few years ago.
Friends and relatives describe Bashar Fakhouri as one of kindest men you could meet.
"If anybody knows anything that can help arrest those guys that did that to him, please come forward," said Basel Fakhouri, Bashar's brother.
Fakhouri's shooting death appears to have been part of a violent armed robbery.
"That is not fair - to take a father from his children and his wife and his family," said Ramzi Fakhouri, Bashar's cousin.
Fakhouri, who friends and customers called Bobby, was shot around 10:30 p.m. Friday as the he prepared to close up for the day.
A witness who says he had just left Fakhouri's Phoenix Liquors 10 minutes before the shooting said he saw two unidentified men come running from the store.
As residents at a motel across the street began calling Brookfield Police for help, the Good Samaritan witness darted into the store and found Fakhouri lying face down on the floor with a gunshot wound to the back of his head.
"I walked in there - I yelled, "Robert, Bobby, Bobby are you alive? Bobby move, tell me something," said the witness.
Fakhouri, the father of two young children, was taken to Loyola University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
The call for help came from a motel across the street.
Authorities say the gunmen fled on foot after emptying the store's cash register of an unknown amount of money.
On Saturday afternoon, investigators released composite sketches developed from witness descriptions of two persons of interest in the homicide. They asked for the public's help.
"We are going to exhaust every resource that we possibly can to bring these individuals to justice," said Chief Steven Stelter of the Brookfield Police Department.
The murder has rocked the quiet western suburb and has left area residents on edge.
"You don't know if these guys live in the neighborhood, you don't know if these guys are still around or what," said Brookfield resident Roland Villareal. "Of course there's a lot of concern."
For Fakhouri's family, there was only pain and sadness Saturday.
"He was always there. He always stuck his neck for anybody," said Basel Fakhouri. "He didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve it at all.)
Police say there was a weapon recovered at the store, but it belonged to the owners and had not been fired.
Relatives say Fakhouri's body will be returned to his native Jordan, where he will be buried.
This is the second tragedy that the family has had to endure recently.
Another relative recently died in a boating accident.
At this hour, no one is in custody in relation to Fakhouri's shooting death, and no arrests have been made.
