The man who detectives were questioning on Monday had been detained on unrelated circumstances and has not been charged in the killings, a spokesman for the New York Police Department said.
Advertisement
Police had already arrested 35-year-old Oscar Morel on Sunday.
Community members pray inside of a mosque before the funeral service of Imam Maulama Akonjee, and Thara Uddin in the Queens borough of New York City, August 15, 2016.
“Morel was arrested late Sunday night outside a Brooklyn apartment after intentionally ramming his vehicle into an unmarked police cruiser trying to block him in, Boyce said”. Investigators from a warrants squad tracked it to an address in Brooklyn where they waited in an unmarked police cruiser for the man to enter before blocking him in, police said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, told those gathered that the entire city was “mourning with you”.
Using video surveillance to track the black Trailblazer the shooter fled in, NYPD located a auto that matched the vehicle from the scene of the hit-and-run.
About 10 minutes later, a auto matching that description struck a cyclist about three miles away in Brooklyn, he said.
After the ceremony, part of the crowd marched to the spot a few blocks away where the shooting took place.
Police earlier said “hate crime” was being investigated as a possible motive.
A police official said investigators had found what they believe was the murder weapon in the man’s home as well as clothes matching the description of what the gunman had been wearing during the shootings.
Some in the largely Bangladeshi Muslim community in Queens and Brooklyn have described harassment in recent months by people who shouted anti-Muslim epithets.
Henry Sautner, deputy inspector of the New York Police department said: “There’s nothing in the preliminary investigation to indicate that they were targeted due to their faith”.
Detectives arrested the man Sunday night in the hit-and-run accident.
The gunmen was seen on CCTV video fleeing the scene in a auto. Both were shot in the head as they left the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid mosque in the Ozone Park section of Queens as they left afternoon prayers Saturday.
A NY man has been charged with the double murder of a Imam and his friend, in a brutal daylight slaying that has shocked Muslim communities across the US.
Earlier Monday evening, New York City officials sought to reassure members of the Muslim community in New York, saying that a “strong person of interest” was in police custody. The crowd applauded when he said that whoever committed the crime would be brought to justice.
Akonjee had been carrying more than US$1,000, but the attacker did not take the money, police said.
Advertisement
In addition, he hasn’t been charged in the double slaying.According to police, however, surveillance footage shows the man speeding away from the scene of the Saturday shooting near a Queens mosque in a black GMC Trailblazer.Authorities remain unclear as to the motive of the daytime shooting of Imam Maulama Alauddin Akonjee and Thara Uddin.
