'Muslims' Lives Matter Too'
Late Monday night, Oscar Morel, 35-year-old Hispanic male from Brooklyn, was charged with two counts of murder and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, police said. He had already been charged with a hit and run and assaulting an officer.
At a press conference earlier on Monday night, NYPD chief of detectives Bob Boyce told reporters they had a "strong person of interest” in the killings of imam Maulama Akonjee, 55, and Thara Uddin.
Morel was arrested late Sunday night after officers staked out a black GMC Trailblazer that matched the description of a vehicle that a man ran into before fleeing the scene in it, Boyce told reporters. Detectives learned the same car was involved in a hit and run with a cyclist three miles away in Queens, about ten minutes after the shooting.
When detectives approached the vehicle, the suspect rammed their vehicles with the GMC in an attempt to escape.
A search of the suspect’s home turned up a revolver and clothing similar to the clothes worn by the gunman, a police spokesperson said.
Boyce refused to speculate over the motives behind the attack but said a hate crime was being investigated as a possibility.
Earlier on Monday, Muslims from across the area, congregated in a parking lot in Queens to remember the victims and perform a janazah prayer on the bodies of the slain men.
Several speakers addressed the riled up crowd in the sweltering heat. Anwar Hussein Khan, an executive director at another local mosque, said the fatal shootings were "a terrorist act committed by an individual motivated by hatred”.
"Their crime was that they were immigrants, minorities and indeed Muslims,” Khan said. "This bigot acted upon his hatred, filled and motivated by the constant rhetoric and xenophobic statements against minorities and Muslims made by the politicians and candidates seeking the highest office of the land.”
Badrul Khan, the co-founder of the Al-Furqan Mosque in Ozone Park, Queens, where Akonjee was the imam, caused an eruption of "We Want Justice!” chants when, speaking in Bengali, he said the culprit had been arrested earlier in the day.
The hundreds of men, some dressed in jalabiyas, long traditional gowns, and donning kufis, packed the parking lot. Signs saying, "Muslims' Lives Matter Too”, and, "We Want Justice”, dotted the crowd.
The hearses of the two men were parked at the front of the parking lot to be prayed on before they were driven out to lead a procession of mourners to the mosque.
Akonjee and Uddin were shot in the back of the head on Saturday afternoon on 79th and Liberty Avenue, as they walked home from a midday prayer at the mosque.
Surveillance footage shows a man running up behind the men before both of them collapsed to the ground. The man, wearing a dark shirt and blue shorts, then calmly walked from the scene.
Several politicians expressed their condolences, including Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, who wrote on Twitter: "The senseless murders of Imam Maulama Akonjee and Thara Uddin are heartbreaking. This kind of heinous act has no place in America.”
New York governor Andrew Cuomo said, "The perpetrators of this heinous crime will be found, and justice will be served.”
Speaking at the Queens memorial service on Monday, mayor De Blasio vowed to increase police presence at mosques across the city, and made thinly veiled remarks about Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump: "We know there are voices all over this country who are spewing hate, trying to create division, trying to turn one American against another.”
The Council of American-Islamic Relations offered a $10,000 reward for any information about the shooting.
The Ozone Park neighborhood is home to a large Bangladeshi community. Local community members described both men as calm, gentle figures who kept to themselves and were deeply devout.
Akonjee was the father of seven who had immigrated to the United States around five years ago. His neighbor Mohammed Haque said he was deeply distraught by the loss of a truly good man.
Sixteen-year-old Maher Meah was Akonjee’s student at the mosque, and was also deeply distraught.
"He told us to stay away from drugs and alcohol. He was a motivational speaker that would tell you how to live your life,” Meah said. "Just to see a life gone like that, is just scary.”
Uddin had also recently immigrated to the United States. His two brothers who live in New York and New Jersey helped him immigrate to the country, a family member told The Guardian. He had five children, three of whom live with him in New York, one son and two daughters.
Around the corner from their homes, dozens of protesters gathered after the funeral to call for justice to be brought to the shooters. Under the train tracks on Liberty Avenue, protesters screamed "We Want Justice”.
"Hate speech creates violence,” said Tarek Mohammed, who had travelled from New Jersey to attend the funeral. "Donald Trump has a big hand in that [sic]. Even if it’s not direct, it’s indirectly.”
Source: The Guardian
