A New York man was charged on Monday with second-degree murder in the deaths of a New York Muslim imam and his assistant, who were gunned down at the weekend, a police spokesman said.
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Police said officers searching the Brooklyn home where Morel was arrested late Sunday found the suspected murder weapon – as well as clothes they believe he was wearing at the time of the shooting – behind a section of the wall that had been cut out and reinstalled with screws. About 10 minutes later, a auto matching that description hit a cyclist in the nearby borough of Brooklyn.
Morel was arrested outside a Brooklyn flat after he intentionally rammed his auto into an unmarked police cruiser trying to block him in, Mr Boyce said.
Oscar Morel appears for an arraignment at the Queens Criminal Court for his alleged involvement in the murder of Imam Maulama Akonjee and Thara Uddin in Queens, New York, U.S., August 16, 2016. Some members of the congregation shouted “justice” throughout the service.
After the ceremony, part of the crowd marched to the spot a few blocks away where the shooting took place.
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. Although police have not determined a motive in the killings, the Muslim community feels strongly that the men were targeted due to their religion.
Muhammad Ali, a mourner at a memorial service for the men on Monday, told CBS New York.
Prosecutors are accusing Morel of gunning down Imam Maulama Akonjee and his friend, Thara Uddin.
CNN left a message seeking comment at the attorney who represented Morel in court.
In a statement, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said the killings were being viewed as a possible hate crime.
The New York City Police Department is asking for the public’s assistance in identifying the individual depicted in the attached sketch in connection to the homicide.
“The defendant ran up behind both of them and pumped numerous bullets into them striking them both in the head. leaving them lying in the street mortally wounded”, he said.
More than a dozen members of the victims’ mosque attended the court proceeding, including the imam’s son and Uddin’s brother. Mashuk Uddin says he believes it was a hate crime. He remembered the imam as a good man who only a day earlier had delivered a eulogy at the mosque.
The gunmen was seen on CCTV video fleeing the scene in a auto.
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“Two people just got murdered and NYPD saying this might not be a hate crime”.
