“These shootings are disturbing,” Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina said at a Saturday press conference. “We are putting every possible resource into these investigations.” The FBI is assisting in the investigation, police said in a statement. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham also said on Twitter that she was sending additional state troopers to the city to work with local and federal authorities to bring “the killer or killers to justice – and they WILL be found.” “The targeted killings of Muslim residents of Albuquerque are deeply angry and totally intolerant,” the governor tweeted. “We will continue to do everything we can to support the Muslim community of Albuquerque and greater New Mexico at this difficult time.” You are New Mexicans, welcome here and we are with you.”
Albuquerque police officers responded shortly before midnight Friday to reports of a shooting in the area of Truman Street and Grand Avenue and found the victim dead, according to a police department news release. The victim, a Muslim man believed to be in his 20s, is from South Asia, police said. His identity has not been positively confirmed, the statement added.
The man’s death came a day after authorities determined there was a link between the murders of Muhammad Afzal Hussain, 27, and Aftab Hussain, 41, both Muslims and from Pakistan, who were killed in southeast Albuquerque in the past two weeks. Detectives are working to determine whether the November killing of Mohammad Ahmadi, a Muslim from Afghanistan, is also connected. Ahmadi was killed outside a business he ran with his brother, police said. The victims in the first three cases were “ambushed without warning, shot and killed,” Kyle Hartsock, deputy commander of the police department’s criminal investigations division, said earlier.
“Our top priority is to keep the community safe and we ask the Muslim community in particular to be vigilant, to look out for each other.” If you see something, say something,” the police chief said Saturday. “Evil shall not prevail.”
There is a $15,000 reward for information leading to an arrest, authorities said.
“Albuquerque is on edge right now, and I want to be clear that we and our law enforcement partners are directing every possible resource to these cases,” Mayor Tim Keller said in a statement. “We will protect our community and bring the perpetrator of these crimes to justice.” In a news release Saturday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations announced it was raising its reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible to $10,000. .
“The lives of Albuquerque Muslims are in danger. Whoever is responsible for this horrific, hate-filled shooting must be identified and stopped – immediately,” CAIR Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said in a statement.
“We thank local, state and federal law enforcement for their continued work on this crisis and call on the Biden administration to ensure that authorities have all the resources necessary to both protect Albuquerque’s Muslim community and stop those responsible for these horrific crimes before they take more innocent lives,” Mitchell added in the statement.
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