Racing after ‘serial killer’
Car clue in deaths of 4 Muslim New Mexicans
Police in Albuquerque, NM, released photos of a car believed to be tied to a possible serial killer in the recent slayings of four Muslim men.
Cops pleaded for the public’s help late Sunday in locating the sought vehicle: a dark gray or silver four-door Volkswagen that appears to be a Jetta with tinted windows.
“We have a very, very strong link,” Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said Sunday. “We have a vehicle of interest . . . We have got to find this vehicle.”
Police did not disclose where or when the images were taken or what led them to suspect the car was involved in any of the crimes. Authorities are still trying to confirm a link between the four killings.
Naeem Hussain, 25, was shot dead late on Friday in Albuquerque, and ambush shootings killed three other Muslim men over the past nine months. The common elements in all the victims are their race and religion, deputy police commander Kyle Hartsock said.
Hussain was gunned down outside an organization that helps refugees, just hours after attending a funeral for two of the other slain Muslim men, reported CNN.
Last week, police confirmed that local detectives and federal law-enforcement officers were looking for possible ties between the crimes. They said they can’t determine yet if the shootings were hate crimes
Muhammed Afzaal Hussain, 27, and Aftab Hussein, 41, were killed in the past week near their respective homes. Both were from Pakistan and members of the same mosque.
Mohammad Ahmadi, 62, a Muslim man of South Asian descent, was killed near his family’s halal market in November 2021, reported The Albuquerque Journal.
Police declined to say whether Friday’s homicide was carried out in a way similar to the other deaths.
American dream stolen
Naeem Hussain fled Pakistan as a refugee in 2015 and became a US citizen just last month, his brotherin-law Ehsan Shahalami told CNN.
“He was the most generous, kind, giving, patient and down-to-earth person that I could ever meet,” said Shahalami. “He was very hardworking. He shared whatever he made with his family back home.”
Hussain started his own trucking company this year and was planning to bring his wife over from Pakistan.
Ahmad Assed, president of the Islamic Center of New Mexico, described Albuquerque’s tightknit Muslim community as feeling “incredibly terrified.”