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This photo released Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022, by the Albuquerque Police Department shows Muhammad Syed. Syed, 51, was taken into custody on Monday, August 8, 2022, in connection with the murders of four Muslims in Albuquerque, New Mexico, over the past nine months. He faces charges in two of the deaths and could face charges in the others. (Albuquerque Police Department via AP)
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This photo released Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022, by the Albuquerque Police Department shows Mohammed Syed. Syed, 51, was taken into custody on Monday, August 8, 2022, in connection with the murders of four Muslims in Albuquerque, New Mexico, over the past nine months. He faces charges in two of the deaths and could face charges in the others. (Albuquerque Police Department via AP)
A Muslim man from Afghanistan was charged Tuesday in the killing of two other Muslims in Albuquerque, New Mexico, authorities said, and he is a suspect in two similar killings that have sparked fear among Muslim communities across the country.
Officials announced the arrest of 51-year-old Mohammed Syed a day after he was taken into custody.
Police Chief Harold Medina said authorities found the suspect while tracking a vehicle believed to be involved in one of the killings in New Mexico’s largest city.
“The driver has been taken into custody and is our primary suspect in the murders,” he said in a tweet.
Investigators received tips from the city’s Muslim community that pointed to Syed, who has lived in the U.S. for about five years, police said.
The motive and exact nature of the relationships between Syed and the victims – and the victims with each other – remain unclear. But police continued to investigate how they crossed paths before the shooting.
“Detectives found evidence indicating that the offender knew the victims to some extent and an interpersonal conflict may have led to the shooting,” police said in a news release.
The killings drew the attention of President Joe Biden, who said such attacks “have no place in America.” They also sent shivers through Muslim communities, where some people questioned their safety and restricted their movements.
When he heard about the announcement, Muhammad Imtiaz Hussain, brother of one of the victims, Muhammad Afzal Hussain, said he was relieved but needed to know more about the suspect and the motive.
“It gives us hope that the truth will come out,” he said. “We need to know why.”
It was unclear if Syed had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.
Naeem Hussain was killed on Friday evening and the other three men died in an ambush. Three of the four murders occurred in the past two weeks.
Hussain, 25, is from Pakistan. His death came just days after the deaths of Muhammad Afzal Hussain, 27, and Aftab Hussain, 41, who were also from Pakistan and members of the same mosque.
The earliest case involved the November killing of 62-year-old Mohammad Ahmadi from Afghanistan.
The police chief said it was still unclear whether the deaths deserved to be called hate crimes or serial killings.
“We still don’t have any indication that any of these incidents or themes, labels, would be appropriate,” he said.
So far, Syed has been charged with the murders of Aftab Hussain and Muhammad Afzal Hussain because shell casings found at the crime scenes were linked to a gun found in his home, authorities said.
Investigators consider Syed the prime suspect in the deaths of Naeem Hussain and Mohammad Zaher Ahmadi, but have not yet filed charges in those cases.
Police are investigating whether Sunni-Shia tensions fueled Syed’s violence or whether he was motivated by other ideas.
“The motives are still being fully investigated to find out what they are,” said Deputy Police Cmdr. Kyle Hartsock said.
Police said they were about to search Syed’s Albuquerque home on Monday when they saw him drive off in a Volkswagen Jetta that investigators believe was used in at least one of the killings.
Officers tracked Syed to Santa Rosa, about 110 miles east of Albuquerque, where they pulled him over during a traffic stop. Multiple firearms were recovered from his home and car, police said.
Syed’s sons were questioned and released, according to authorities.
Prosecutors expect to file murder charges in state court and are considering adding a federal case, authorities said.
“It’s pretty shocking,” Aniela Abad, general secretary of the Islamic Center of New Mexico, said of the arrest. “We’re still trying to figure it out.”
She said she believed the suspect attended her mosque and that he had been to other mosques.
Asked about possible tension between Sunnis and Shiites, she said: “We don’t want to create this chaos around Shiites and Sunnis.” She said the suspect’s “personal agenda” was “what caused all this chaos”.
The two Muslim communities in New Mexico enjoy warm ties, she said. “Our Shiite community has always been there for us and we Sunnis have always been there for them.”
Few anti-Muslim hate crimes have been reported in Albuquerque over the past five years, according to FBI data cited by Brian Levine, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism and a professor of criminal justice at California State University, San Bernardino.
From 2017 to 2020, there was one anti-Muslim hate crime per year. The highest recent number was in 2016, when Albuquerque police recorded six of a total of 25 hate crimes.
That’s largely in line with national trends, which hit the lowest numbers in a decade in 2020, only to increase by 45 percent in 2021 in a dozen cities and states, Levin said.
The last victim was found dead after police received a report of shots fired. Authorities declined to say whether the killing was carried out in a manner similar to the other deaths.
Muhammad Afzal Hussain worked as a field organizer for Melanie Stansbury’s Democratic campaign.
“Muhammad was kind, hopeful, optimistic,” she said, describing him as an urban planner “who believed in democracy and social change and who believed that we could actually build a brighter future for our communities and for our world. “
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Dazio reported from Los Angeles and Pham from Winter Park, Florida. Associated Press writer Lindsey Whitehurst in Washington and AP news researchers Rhonda Schaffner and Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed to this report.
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