Faizel Patel, 2016-08-16
A New York man has been charged with second-degree murder for the deaths of a New York Imam and his assistant.
The charges against 35-year-old Oscar Morel of Brooklyn, came just hours after hundreds of mourners gathered for the outdoor funeral of the two men.
55-year-old Moulana Akonjee the Imam of Al-Furqan Jame Masjid in Queens and 64-year-old Thara Uddin were fatally shot in the head in the Ozone Park section by a man dressed in a dark polo shirt and shorts who approached them from behind as they left the masjid shortly before Zuhr salaah on Saturday.
The killings in the borough of Queens has shocked the neighbourhood’s Bangladeshi community.
A police spokesperson told Reuters Morel was charged with two counts of second-degree murder and also was charged with two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
The spokesman did not disclose any possible motive for the shooting.
Morel had been questioned by police following his arrest on charges related to a hit-and-run traffic accident on Saturday, the day of the shootings.
Police told a briefing before the charges were announced that a suspect being questioned was a Hispanic man from Brooklyn.
A number of speakers at the funeral implored authorities to investigate the murders as hate crimes and to step up efforts to protect mosques and parts of the city like Ozone Park where many Muslims live and work.
“We want justice,” Badrul Kahn, founder of the Al-Furqan mosque, shouted to the crowd in the service’s opening speech.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, addressing the funeral, promised the city would bolster the police presence in the neighbourhood even though the motive behind the killings was still unclear.
Police had said earlier that there was no evidence the men were targeted because of their faith but nothing was being ruled out.
– Reuters
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