Taos: New Mexico police said on Tuesday they had detained a suspect believed to be involved in the fatal shootings of four Muslim men in Albuquerque over the past nine months.
Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina wrote on Twitter that police tracked down a vehicle of interest in their probe of the murders, the latest of which involved a man who was gunned down on Friday night.
Altaf Hussain cries over the grave of his brother Aftab Hussein at Fairview Memorial Park in Albuquerque, New Mexico.Credit:AP
“The driver was detained and he is our primary suspect for the murders,” Medina wrote. He said police would hold a press briefing on Tuesday afternoon.
Albuquerque and state authorities have been working to provide extra police presence at mosques during prayer times as the investigation proceeds in New Mexico’s largest city, home to as many as 5000 Muslims out of some 565,000 total residents.
The ambush-style shootings of the men, who were of Pakistani or Afghan descent, has terrified Albuquerque’s Muslim community. Some families have gone into hiding in their homes, and some Pakistani students at the University of New Mexico left town out of fear.
The first of the killings occurred in November. Three other men were killed over the past two weeks.
A young man bows during the afternoon prayer at the Islamic Centre of New Mexico.Credit:AP
Imtiaz Hussain, the brother of murdered city planning director Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, referring to the arrest, said: “It is such a relief that it happened.”
An official for the Islamic Centre of New Mexico, Albuquerque’s largest mosque that several of the murdered men attended, declined immediate comment.
Naeem Hussain was killed Friday night, and the three other men died in ambush shootings.
Hussain, 25, was from Pakistan. His death came just days after those of Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, 27, and Aftab Hussein, 41, who were also from Pakistan and members of the same mosque.
Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, 27, a planning and land use director who was killed in Albuquerque. Credit:AP
The earliest case involves the November killing of Mohammad Ahmadi, 62, from Afghanistan.
The common elements in the deaths were the victims’ race and religion, officials said, and police were trying to determine if the deaths are linked.
This Wanted poster by the Albuquerque Police Department shows a vehicle suspected of being used in the homicides of four Muslim men in Albuquerque.Credit:AP
Debbie Almontaser, a Muslim community leader in New York, said that a female friend who lives in Michigan and wears the hijab head covering shared with her over the weekend just how rattled she was. “She’s like, ‘This is so terrifying. I’m so scared. I travel alone,’” Almontaser said.
Aneela Abad, general secretary at the Islamic Centre of New Mexico, described a community reeling from the killings, its grief compounded by confusion and fear of what may follow.
“We are just completely shocked and still trying to comprehend and understand what happened, how and why,” she said.
Some people have avoided going out unless “absolutely necessary,” and some Muslim university students have been wondering whether it is safe for them to stay in the city, she said. The centre has also beefed up its security.
Police initially said the same vehicle was suspected of being used in all four homicides — a dark gray or silver four-door Volkswagen that appeared to be a Jetta or Passat with dark tinted windows. But the police chief’s tweet referred only to the vehicle’s connection with one slaying.
Authorities released photos hoping people could help identify the car and offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
Reuters, AP
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