An imam was killed and another man was hospitalized in critical condition after both were shot in the head while walking in Queens, according to witnesses and authorities.
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Police say they don’t know the motive for the shootings and that there’s no indication the men were targeted due to their faith.
Police have not provided a motive for the killing Mirror Online reports.
The leader of a New York City mosque and an associate have been fatally shot in a brazen daylight attack.
The men were approached from behind by a man who shot them both in the head, a police spokesman said. “(And) a very helpful guy”, said neighbour Mohammed Uddin, who is not a relation of Thara Uddin’s.
On Saturday evening, dozens of residents, mostly men, gathered under elevated train tracks waving signs and chanting, “We want justice!” Witnesses said he had a gun in his hand.
Akongi, 55, was described as a peaceful man who was beloved within Ozone Park’s large Muslim community.
A double shooting in Queens leaves one person dead.
“We are devastated”, Kobir Chowdhury, president of a second neighborhood mosque, told the Daily News. She’d tell him, “Why are you caring about me?”
Sources told the New York Daily News that the hate crimes task force of the city police would be investigating the shooting, but that it was “too early to say” it was indeed a hate crime.
In June, CAIR issued a statement calling for Muslim community leaders to consider increasing security after the Orlando massacre and incidents that it said had targeted Muslims and Islamic houses of worship.
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Letitia James, who as the city’s public advocate serves as a watchdog over city agencies, said in a statement, “This violence is as alarming as it is senseless”.
