A New York man, Oscar Morel, of Brooklyn, was charged Monday with two counts of second-degree murder in the shooting deaths of a Muslim imam and his assistant, a police spokesman said.
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Morel, 35, was also charged with two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, the spokesperson added.
Witnesses had earlier told police they saw the assailant, dressed in a dark shirt and blue shorts, fleeing with a gun in his hand, police said. Surveillance footage showed the suspect tailing the victims.
The victims, identified as Imam Maulana Akonjee and Thara Uddin, were found by the police bleeding in the street on Saturday and were taken to a hospital where they were pronounced dead. Although police have yet to yet to establish a motive, residents have demanded authorities treat the brazen daylight shooting as a hate crime.
Akonjee was carrying US$1,000 with him at the time of the attack but the money was not taken, the New York Times reported.
The gunman approached the men from behind and shot both in the head at close range about 1:50 p.m., local time, in the Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens, one of the city's five boroughs, police said in a statement.
The men were attacked about two blocks from the Al-Furqan Jame Mosque where they had just left afternoon prayers. Ozone Park, a diverse, largely working-class area, is home to a growing number of Muslims of Bangladeshi heritage.