NEW YORK: New York City police searched on Sunday for a gunman who killed a Muslim cleric and his associate as they left prayers at a mosque in Queens on Saturday, stunning their budding Bangladeshi community.
Police had yet to establish a motive and said there was no evidence the men were targeted because of their faith, but nothing was being ruled out. Residents demanded authorities treat the brazen daylight shooting as a hate crime.
New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito condemned the attacks in a statement that said: "This kind of hate has no place in our communities."
The gunman approached the men from behind and shot both in the head at close range about 1:50 p.m. EDT (1750 GMT) in the Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens, one of the city's five boroughs, police said in a statement.
The victims, identified as Imam Maulama Akonjee, 55, and Thara Uddin, 64, were both wearing religious garb, police said. Police found them bleeding in the street and took them to a hospital where they were pronounced dead.
Akonjee was a married father of three who moved from Bangladesh about two years ago, according to media reports. He was carrying $1,000 with him at the time of the attack but the money was not taken, The New York Times reported.
They were attacked about two blocks from a 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.
A sketch of a suspect in the shooting of a Muslim cleric and an associate released by New York Police Department
"I have never felt this kind of tension," said Nizam Uddin, 57, a taxi driver and member of the Al-Furqan Jame Mosque who said he knew both the cleric and his associate but was not related to the associate.
"We are asking for justice for our imam."
This appeared to be the most violent act against local leaders in recent years, said Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group.
Hooper said he could recall past incidents in which an imam was pushed, called names or otherwise harassed.
"Things like that, but nothing of this nature, nothing where people were killed," he said.
Police released a sketch of a male suspect with dark hair, a beard and glasses. Police described him as having a medium complexion. He appeared to be in his 30s or 40s.
Witnesses 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.
A report by CAIR and the University of California at Berkeley released in June said the number of recorded incidents in which mosques were targeted jumped to 78 in 2015, the most since the body began tracking them in 2009.
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