NEW YORK (AP) — The leader of a New York City mosque and a friend were fatally shot in a brazen daylight attack as they left afternoon prayers Saturday.
NEW YORK (AP) — The leader of a New York City mosque and a friend were fatally shot in a brazen daylight attack as they left afternoon prayers Saturday.
Police said Imam Maulama Akonjee, 55, and 64-year-old Thara Uddin were shot in the head as they left the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid mosque in the Ozone Park section of Queens shortly before 2 p.m. Both men were later pronounced dead.
Police said no motive had been established and there was no reason to believe the men were shot because they were Muslim.
No suspects were in custody late Saturday.
“There’s nothing in the preliminary investigation to indicate that they were targeted because of their faith,” said Deputy Inspector Henry Sautner of the New York Police Department.
Sautner said video surveillance showed the victims were approached from behind by a man in a dark polo shirt and shorts who shot them and then fled with the gun still in his hand.
The imam’s daughter, Naima Akonjee, said her father and Uddin were close friends who always walked together to the mosque from their homes on the same street.
Members of the Bangladeshi Muslim community served by the mosque said they want the shootings to be treated as a hate crime.
More than 100 people attended a rally Saturday night and chanted “We want justice!”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, an advocacy group, held a news conference near the shooting scene, where Kobir Chowdhury, a leader at another local mosque, said, “Read my lips: This is a hate crime” directed at Islam. “We are peace-loving.”