When New York detectives attempted to arrest the man Sunday night, “he rammed the detectives’ auto several times in an attempt to get away”, Boyce said.
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Sandals mark the crime scene, Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016, not far from the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid Mosque in the Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens, New York, where the leader of a New York City mosque has been fatally shot and an associate has been wounded in a brazen daylight attack.
He says 10 minutes later, that auto also struck a bicyclist 4.8km away in Brooklyn. Detectives checked a police database and found that a vehicle with a matching description had been involved in a hit-and-run crash in Brooklyn, police 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”, de Blasio said in a statement following the incident.
The ceremony featured several speakers who said they believed the victims were targeted due to their religion.
Police arrested and charged a man with murder late Monday night in the brazen daytime shooting deaths of an imam and his friend as they left a New York City mosque over the weekend.
Traditional Islamic services for Imam Maulama Akonjee, 55, and Thara Uddin, 64, drew a large crowd to a parking area near where the men were killed after Saturday prayers at the Al-Furqan Jame Mosque in the Ozone Park section of Queens.
An NYPD Regional Fugitive Task Force then conducted what turned out to “brief surveillance” of the suspect, who rammed an unmarked police auto shortly after they began spying on him, sources said. A motive had not yet been established, and police had not discovered a connection between the suspect and victims.
The suspect was in the area eight minutes before the homicide and took off directly afterward, Boyce said.
Police would also be searching the man’s home and vehicle in connection with the killings.
Police blocked off several roads around the Brooklyn parking lot where the funeral was held, and scores of officers worked to secure the event, setting up barricades to keep spectators from swarming the black hearses and the speakers’ tent.
He added he remained committed to supporting the community and police’s efforts.
Authorities say surveillance footage showed the auto leaving the scene of Saturday’s shooting in Queens.
Police moved in and took the suspect into custody as he approached the vehicle on Sunday night.
The New York Daily News quoted police sources as saying the killer may have been settling a score in a feud between Muslims and Hispanics, suggestions that have been dismissed by members of the Muslim community.
Investigators said Monday that the auto matched the description of one involved in an unsolved hit-and-run crash in Brooklyn.
Another son, Foyez Uddin, who isn’t related to the other victim, told The Associated Press in Bangladesh that his father and mother had booked flights for August 31 to visit Akonjee’s mother.
One speaker demanded security cameras be erected outside mosques and for the street where the two men were shot to be renamed in their honor.
But it’s unclear yet whether the men, who were attacked from behind, were targeted for their Muslim faith.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, planned to announce on Monday a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the shooter.
The charges against Oscar Morel, 35, of Brooklyn, came on Monday just hours after hundreds of mourners gathered for the outdoor funeral of the two men.
“That’s certainly on the table, a hate crime”.
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This story has been corrected to show the spelling of the imam’s title as Maulana, not Maulama, per new information from the mayor’s office and a family member.
