Detectives question man in NYC mosque shooting

As the event was unfolding, detectives were questioning a man as part of an attempt to identify a vehicle seen leaving the scene of the shooting. The individual has not yet been identified and no charges have been brought.

New York’s Mayor Bill De Blasio released a statement in which he said, “While we do not yet know the motivation for the murders of Maulama Akonjee and Thara Uddin, we do know that our Muslim communities are in the perpetual crosshairs of bigotry”.

“This was a hate crime”.

Both gravely injured men were rushed to a nearby hospital where they were pronounced dead later that afternoon.

The imam and his associate were gunned down just blocks from their mosque where they had just left afternoon prayers. They were walking home after midday prayers. Both were shot in the head. Omar Awad, president of the Islamic Center of Passaic County in Paterson, who attended the event with the center’s imam, said those words mattered, because “innocent Muslims are being killed execution-style”.

Residents of Ozone Park were shaken by the brazen daylight killings and said such a crime was rare in the normally quiet neighbourhood. The mosque’s members are mainly, though not exclusively, from Bangladesh. But where de Blasio, City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer (D) and other officials alluded to divisive rhetoric, local Bengali leaders were more direct.

Mr Uddin said the family “can not believe he is no more” and called the loss “irreparable”.

“Unfortunately, such incidents have the potential to make communities feel unsafe and vulnerable”, said Evan R. Bernstein, director of the ADL’s NY region. Police searched the suspect’s home and found a gun they believe was used to shoot Imam Maulama Akonjee, 55, and his assistant, Thara Uddin, 64, on Saturday.

It was in the killer’s haste to get away that he created the circumstances that led to his own downfall.

He told the Associated Press that in one incident, a man called him “Osama” as he walked to the mosque with his three-year-old son.

“A lot of neighbours said, ‘Hey, don’t take your kid with you, ‘” he said. “We know there are voices all over this country spewing hate”, he told the crowd.

Morel was taken into custody late Sunday night for hitting a bicyclist with his SUV just 10 minutes after Saturday’s shooting in Queens, said the New York Police Department’s chief of detectives, Robert Boyce, at a news conference Monday.

Officials are not calling the man a suspect at this point, but a person of interest in the case.

Anowar Miah, who moved to the U.S. from Bangladesh as a child and saw the political climate intensify, said it has gotten infinitely worse this election. Law enforcers described him as having a medium complexion and appeared to be in his 30s or 40s.