A man has been charged with murder after a Muslim cleric and his assistant were fatally shot outside a mosque in New York earlier this month.
Oscar Morel, 35, from Brooklyn, was indicted with one count of first degree murder, two counts of second degree murder and two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. He has denied committing the killings.
Reuters – Oscar Moral was indicted by a grand jury of New York and has been held without bail.
District attorney Richard Brown said the killings “strike at the very heart of our country’s Muslim community”.
Imam Maulana Akonjee, 55, and his assistant Thara Uddin, 64, were gunned down as they left their mosque on Saturday 13 August in the Ozone Park neighbourhood of Queens.
“Both victims were gentlemen of peace and their deaths are a devastating loss to their families and the community that they served,” said Brown.
Authorities have said the gunman’s motive remains unclear and the possibility it was a hate crime is being investigated.
Morel, who has been held without bail since his initial court appearance last week, will be arraigned on the grand jury’s indictment at a later date.
If convicted, he faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Akonjee, a father of seven, emigrated to the United States from Bangladesh several years ago. Community members who knew him well described the slain imam as a humble man who lived and breathed his religious faith.
Additional reporting by Reuters.
