NEW YORK — A man suspected of gunning down an imam and his friend as they left a New York City mosque was arrested and charged with murder late Monday night, said police, who have not yet released a motive for the shooting deaths.
Police charged Oscar Morel, 35, with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the Saturday afternoon slayings of Imam Maulana Alauddin Akonjee and Thara Uddin near the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid mosque in the Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens.
Officers took Morel into custody late Sunday night outside a Brooklyn apartment as he approached a vehicle that police had linked to an unrelated hit-and-run and that matched the description of the shooting suspect’s getaway vehicle.
“Detectives from the Fugitive Task Force Unit approached the car, and then he rammed the detectives’ car several times in an effort to get away,” said the New York Police Department’s chief of detectives, Robert Boyce. “He was placed under arrest without any further incident and brought back to the precinct for more debriefing.”
Boyce said Morel was seen on surveillance video fleeing the area of the shooting in a black GMC Trailblazer. About 10 minutes later, a car matching that description struck a bicyclist nearby in Brooklyn.
Morel initially was charged in connection with the hit-and-run, but those charges were upgraded on Monday night after police said they recovered a revolver at his Brooklyn home and clothes similar to those worn by the gunman in the surveillance video.
Both Akonjee and Uddin were wearing religious clothing when they were shot in the head on Saturday after leaving the Al-Furqan Jame Mosque in the Queens area after mid-afternoon prayers.
“We believe because of the evidence we have acquired thus far that ... this is the individual,” Boyce said.
Meanwhile, huge crowds lined the streets earlier on Monday as the bodies of Akonjee and Uddin were carried aloft during a procession.
Thousands of people marched in protest after the funeral — holding placards reading: “Muslim Lives Matter.” “We pray here five times a day, we are scared, we need protection,” one mourner told Al Jazeera. “He was dressed like a Muslim, this was a hate crime.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio, addressing the funeral, blamed hate and division for the murders and promised to step up protection at mosques and other parts of the city with big Muslim populations.
“There are voices all over this country who are spewing hate, trying to create division and turn one American against another ... we’re not going to listen to those voices that try to divide us,” de Blasio said.
Khairul Islam, a local resident, singled out Donald Trump for blame, saying the Republican presidential nominee had incited hatred and fear of Muslims.
“We blame Donald Trump for this. Trump and his drama has created Islamophobia,” he was quoted by local newspaper the Daily News as saying.
Trump has been criticized for several statements his opponents say are Islamophobic, and he has previously called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States.
