Man who killed New York imam arrested

Police arrested a man who allegedly killed a New York imam and his friend in broad daylight over the weekend. The shooter, identified as 35-year-old Oscar Morel, has also been charged with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, as reported by the police.

So far, the motive of the double murders is not clear but the imam and his friend were shot as they were coming out of a mosque in Queens after their afternoon prayers on Saturday.

After the shooting, Morel fled the scene of the shooting in a black SUV and hit a bicycle just 10 minutes after the shooting. Morel was recognized as a description matching the car of the suspect was released and Morel ended up hitting the bicycle just three miles away from in Brooklyn. He was later arrested outside a Brooklyn apartment after he intentionally rammed his car into an unmarked police cruiser which was trying to block him.

After the arrest, police raided Morel’s apartment and found a revolver and clothes similar to those worn by the killer in a surveillance video of the incident. After these things were discovered, charges against Morel were upgraded on Monday night.

Imam Maulana Alauddin Akonjee and his assistant Thara Uddin were revered members of the Muslim society and their murders caused uproar in the community. Most people are labeling the incident as hate crime and want justice for the slain members of their community.

So far a motive of the shooting has not been revealed but the possibility that the murders were a hate crime, is surely on the tables.

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Posted by fatimaarshad on Aug 16 2016. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.