US agencies probe ‘targeted killings’ of Muslim men
POLICE in the US state of New Mexico last Sunday (7) asked for the public’s help in locating a “vehicle of interest” in their probe of four fatal shootings of Muslim men, whose killings in Albuquerque over the past nine months are believed by investigators to be related.
All three of the men, as well as the first victim who was shot dead in November last year, were Muslim men of Pakistani or Afghan descent. They all lived in Albuquerque, the southwestern state’s largest city, home to as many as 5,000 Muslims out of some 565,000 total residents.
The city’s mayor, Tim
Keller, said state authorities were working to provide an “extra police presence at mosques during times of prayer”.
The latest victim, police said, was gunned down last Friday (5) night. The attack occured shortly after he had attended funeral services for two others slain during the past couple of weeks, according to local Islamic leaders.
Police have given few details of the latest murder, but described the first three killings as ambush shootings. The governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, characterised them as “targeted killings of Muslim residents.”
The US president, Joe Biden, posted a message on Twitter last Sunday expressing solidarity with the Muslim
community, adding, “These hateful attack have no place in America.”
Albuquerque police officials told a news conference hours later that they were following a number of leads. They issued a bulletin with photographs of a four-door, dark gray Volkswagen sedan with tinted windows that they described as a “vehicle of interest” in the investigation.
It was unclear how the car was tied to the case, and police said they had yet to determine if they were seeking one or more suspects.
The three latest victims belonged to the same mosque, according to Tahir Gauba, a spokesperson for the Islamic Center of New Mexico. Officials were withholding the identity of the man killed last Friday pending notification of next of kin, but Gauba said he was killed shortly after attending the funeral for two previous victims.
Muhammed Afzaal Hussain, 27, a planning director for the city of Espanola who immigrated from Pakistan, was shot dead last Monday (1) outside his apartment complex. It came less than a week after Aftab Hussein, 41, from Albuquerque’s large Afghan community, was found slain on July 26 near the city’s international district, police said. Hussain also worked on the campaign team for US pepresentative Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico.
Police said they were treating those two slayings, along with last Friday’s killing, as linked to the November 7 murder of Mohammad Ahmadi, 62, also a Muslim from Afghanistan. He was shot to death in a parking lot outside a halal supermarket and cafe.
“There are several things in common with all four of the homicides,” city police spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said.
Asked whether the killings were hate crimes, Gallegos said, “Hate is determined by motive, and we don’t know that motive at this point.”
Gauba estimated there are 3,000 to 5,000 Muslims living in and around Albuquerque, accounting for about 85 per cent of the entire state’s Islamic population.
The New Mexico State Police, the FBI and the US Marshals Service are among the agencies that are assisting in the investigation.