Suspect arrested as Queens Muslims bury murdered imam

Suspect arrested as Queens Muslims bury murdered imam
Police in New York announced the arrest of a suspect in the murder of a Queens imam and his friend, hours after the Muslim community laid the victims to rest.
2 min read
16 August, 2016
The imam and his associate were shot dead on Saturday afternoon [AFP]

Police arrested and charged a man with murder late Monday night in the brazen daytime shooting deaths of an imam and his associate as they left a New York City mosque on Saturday.

Oscar Morel, 35, was charged with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, police said.

Morel was taken into custody late Sunday night for hitting a bicyclist with his SUV just 10 minutes after Saturday's shooting in Queens, the New York Police Department's chief of detectives, Robert Boyce, said at a news conference Monday.

Police said they "strongly believed" he was the same person who killed Imam Maulana Alauddin Akonjee and his friend Thara Uddin as they walked home from their mosque in Queens on Saturday afternoon.

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.

About 10 minutes later, a car matching that description struck a bicyclist nearby in Brooklyn. Morel was arrested outside a Brooklyn apartment after he intentionally rammed his car into an unmarked police cruiser trying to block him in, Boyce said.

Charges against Morel were upgraded Monday night after police said they recovered a revolver at his Brooklyn home and clothes similar to those being worn in the surveillance video that showed the gunman.

Earlier Monday, about 1,000 people gathered under tents to praise Akonjee, 55, and Uddin, 64, in an Islamic funeral service where emotions ran high.

The ceremony featured several speakers who said they believed the victims were targeted because of their religion. Some members of the congregation shouted, "Justice!" periodically throughout the service.

After the ceremony, part of the crowd marched to the spot a few blocks away where the shooting took place.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told those gathered that the entire city was "mourning with you."

Authorities have not released a motive for the killings, though Boyce said the possibility that the murders were a hate crime is "certainly on the table."

Some in the largely Bangladeshi Muslim community in Queens and Brooklyn have described harassment in recent months by people who shouted anti-Muslim epithets.

Agencies contributed to this report.