“For days, news that a killer appeared to be targeting Muslim men in Albuquerque struck fear among the city’s Muslim residents. Some were so afraid of being the next target that they fled or holed up in their homes,” recount The New York Times.
“Albuquerque police revealed last Thursday [4 août] that three homicides, which occurred between November and August, could be linked. The next day, a fourth Muslim […] was shot dead in his car, further heightening concern in a city where many refugees and immigrants had long felt safe.”
Albuquerque Muslims breathe a little easier. On Tuesday August 9, police announced that they had arrested a 51-year-old man from Afghanistan, Muhammad Syed, “charged in two of four recent homicides”, reports Albuquerque Journal, a local newspaper. The police men “indicated that the casings found at the scene of these two crimes were probably fired from the same weapon, which was found during a search”.
A motive still uncertain
According to the police, the suspect “may have targeted at least two of the victims because he couldn’t stand his daughter marrying a man from the other major branch of Islam”, add The New York Times.
According to the president of a mosque attended by at least three of the victims, “authorities are investigating the possibility that the suspect is a Sunni Muslim motivated by resentment after a marriage to a Shia,” reports the New York newspaper. However, he points out that the details are lacking and that“at least one of the victims was Sunni”.