Tiffany Phillips, a spokeswoman for the New York Police Department, confirmed that two men were shot on a street in the Ozone Park section of Queens.
Advertisement
The men had been wearing religious attire at the time of the shooting, a law enforcement source with direct knowledge of the investigation told CNN.
Police have said there are “no indications” at this time that the two men were targeted due to their religion, adding that the motivation was still under investigation.
The suspect was seen by witnesses fleeing the scene with a gun in his hand, police said.
Video footage posted on YouTube showed dozens of men gathered near the site of the shooting, with one of them telling the crowd that it appeared to be a hate crime.
The statement identified the imam as Maulama Akonjee, 55.
Both men were taken to hospital but died “while life-saving procedures were being performed”, a hospital spokesman said.
A 55-year old Bangladeshi-American Imam at a mosque in NY and his associate have been shot and killed from point blank range by an unidentified gunman in broad daylight amid growing concerns across the country over rising Islamophobic rhetoric.
“These were two very beloved people”, Afaf Nasher, executive director of the NY chapter of CAIR, told Reuters. “I understand the fear because I feel it myself”, she said. I understand the anger.
But a man who worships at the mosque is blaming the shooting on anti-Muslim rhetoric from some political figures. “There is a very loud cry, too, for the NYPD to investigate fully, with the total amount of their resources, the incident that happened today”.
Sarah Sayeed, a member of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s staff who serves as a liaison to Muslim communities, attended the rally.
But police were not ruling out any possibility, she added.
“The community’s heart is totally broken”, said Uddin, who is not related to Thara Uddin. “You would watch him come down the street and watch the peace he brings”.
Advertisement
Kobir Chowdhury, who heads the nearby Masjid Al-Aman mosque in Brooklyn, said: “Please, read my lips”.
