Mayor Tim Keller said state authorities were working to provide “additional police presence at mosques during prayer” as the search continued in New Mexico’s largest city, home to as many as 5,000 Muslims of its roughly 565,000 residents. The latest victim, police said, was gunned down on Friday night, in a killing that local Islamist leaders said happened shortly after he had attended the funerals of two others killed in the past two weeks. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register All three of those men, as well as the first victim who was shot in November, were Muslim men of Pakistani or Afghan descent who resided in Albuquerque. Police have released few details about the latest killing, but described the first three killings as ambush shootings. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham called them “targeted killings of Muslim residents.” US President Joe Biden posted a message on Twitter on Sunday expressing solidarity with the Muslim community, adding: “These hateful attacks have no place in America.” Albuquerque police officials said at a news conference hours later that they were following up on a series of leads and issued a bulletin with photos of a four-door, dark gray Volkswagen sedan with tinted windows that they described as a “vehicle of interest” in the investigation. It was unclear how the car was connected to the case, and police said they had not yet determined whether they were looking for one or more suspects in the investigation. Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller speaks to the audience during an event celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S., October 11, 2021. REUTERS/Mostafa Bassim read more The last three victims belonged to the same mosque, according to Tahir Gouba, a spokesman for the Islamic Center of New Mexico. Officials withheld the identity of the man killed Friday pending notification of next of kin. But Gauba said he was killed shortly after attending the funerals of the two previous victims. Muhammed Afzaal Hussain, 27, a planning director for the city of Espanola who immigrated from Pakistan, was shot dead Aug. 1 outside his apartment complex, less than a week after Aftab Hussein, 41, of Albuquerque’s large Afghan community, he was found dead. on July 26 near the city’s international district, police said. Hussain also worked on the campaign team of U.S. Representative Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico. Police said they were treating those two murders, along with Friday’s, as linked to the Nov. 7 killing of 62-year-old Mohammad Ahmadi, also a Muslim from Afghanistan, who was shot to death in a parking lot outside a halal supermarket. and a coffee shop. “There are a lot of things in common with all four homicides,” city police spokesman Gilbert Gallegos told reporters Sunday. Asked if investigators believe the killings are hate crimes, Gallegos said, “Hate is determined by the motive, and we don’t know that motive at this point.” Gauba estimates that 3,000 to 5,000 Muslims live in and around Albuquerque, representing about 85% of the entire state’s Muslim population. New Mexico State Police, the FBI and the US Marshals Service are among the agencies assisting in the investigation. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles. Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington. Edited by Lisa Shumaker and Edwina Gibbs Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
