Morel was taken into custody a day earlier for hitting a bicyclist with his SUV just 10 minutes after the August 13 shooting in Queens, said the New York Police Department’s chief of detectives, Robert Boyce, at a news conference August 15.
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Morel’s arrest occurred hours after funeral services were held in Brooklyn for Akonjee and Uddin.
Officers took Morel into custody late Sunday outside a Brooklyn apartment as he approached a vehicle that police had linked to an unrelated hit-and-run and that matched the description of the shooting suspect’s getaway vehicle.
Relatives of an imam and his friend who were gunned down near a New York City mosque are meeting with prosecutors.
Boyce said Morel was seen on surveillance video fleeing the area of the shooting in a black GMC Trailblazer right after the two were shot in the head.
Omar Mohammedi of the Association of Muslim American Lawyers said his group will push to have a hate crime charge made against Morel. They have not ruled out that it could have been a hate crime.
“Their deaths are a devastating loss to their families and the community that they served as men of peace”, Brown said.
A man suspected of gunning down an imam and his friend as they left a New York City mosque has been arrested and charged with murder, as police investigate a motive for the killings.
Uddin’s brother, Mashuk Uddin, told reporters that he believes hate was the motive for the shooting. He’s facing counts of first- and second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon for the cold-blooded execution of Imam Maulana Akonjee and Thara Uddin as they walked home from prayers at an Ozone Park mosque on the afternoon of August 13. “I want to extend my deepest sympathy to the families of Imam Maulama Akonjee and Thara Uddin and assure them that the law enforcement community will work tirelessly to ensure that justice is done in this case”.
“We’re still drilling down on that as we go forward”, Boyce said.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Morel had an attorney. That’s when police say Morel intentionally rammed his vehicle into an unmarked police cruiser.
He said the suspect is believed to have worked at a warehouse in Brooklyn.
“Oscar Morel has been a porter at The New School since November 2013”, the school said in a statement.
“I just want to say that I like all types of religions”, he insisted, placing both hands on the counter firmly.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, told those gathered that the entire city was “mourning with you”. “We’re not going to listen to those voices that try to divide us”. Morel is expected back in Queens Criminal Court Monday.
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Hauslohner reported from NY.
