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Imam and Another Man Killed in Shooting Near Mosque in Queens Imam and Another Man Killed in Shooting Near Mosque in Queens
(about 2 hours later)
A gunman shot and killed two people near a mosque in Queens on Saturday afternoon, according to the police. A congregant of the mosque, the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid, said its imam was among the victims. A gunman shot and killed an imam and his assistant on the street near their mosque in Queens on Saturday afternoon, the police said.
The gunshots rang out at around 1:55 p.m. a couple of blocks away from the mosque in the Ozone Park neighborhood. The victims, a 64-year-old man and a 55-year-old man, were rushed to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, the police said. The police said the imam, Maulana Akonjee, 55, and Thara Uddin, 64, were shot shortly before 2 p.m. near the mosque, Al-Furqan Jame Masjid, in the Ozone Park neighborhood. Officers found them with gunshot wounds to their heads when they arrived at the scene, at the corner Liberty Avenue and 79th Street.
Misba Abdin, 47, who attends the mosque and is a leader of a nonprofit in the neighborhood, said the imam had been walking away from the mosque with his brother-in-law after he had led a prayer when they were shot. Misba Abdin, 47, who attends the mosque and is a leader of a nonprofit in the neighborhood, said the men had just left a prayer session at the mosque. The police said Mr. Akonjee and Mr. Uddin were approached from behind by a man wearing a dark polo shirt and shorts, who was seen running away after they were shot, according to witnesses and video footage from the area.
The police said they were still investigating whether the shooting, which was initially reported as a robbery, was a hate crime. The police have not released the names of the victims. Police said that Mr. Uddin was Mr. Akonjee’s assistant.
The gunman fled after the shooting and remained at large. Henry Sautner, a deputy inspector in the New York Police Department, said the police had not determined a motive for the shooting. “There’s nothing in the preliminary investigation that would indicate that they were targeted by their faith,” he said.
Mr. Abdin described the imam as a man with no enemies. Still, the shooting shook the Bangladeshi residents who live in the neighborhood and attend that mosque and others there, on the border of Brooklyn and Queens.
“He is a very religious, pious person, he doesn’t talk, unless he acts,” Mr. Abdin said. “He just comes to the mosque and comes home. He has no outside world.” Hundreds of Ozone Park residents rallied Saturday evening at the crime scene, chanting, “We want justice!” over the sounds of the subway overhead and helicopters in the air.
Mr. Abdin said the imam lived in the neighborhood. The mosque is frequented primarily by people of Bangladeshi origin, he said. Eric A. Ulrich, a City Council member who represents the area, said that the video footage would be key to identifying the shooter. “We are going to need your help identifying him,” he told the crowd.
Many there said that the nature of the shooting, in the middle of the day with no obvious motive, led them to believe the men were targeted.
“It could have been me over here,” said Kobir Chowdhury, 40, the president of Masjid Al-Aman, a nearby mosque. Mr. Chowdhury said he believed the shooting was motivated by intolerance.
Mr. Abdin said that Mr. Akonjee lived in the neighborhood and described him as a man with no enemies. “He is a very religious, pious person, he doesn’t talk, unless he acts,” Mr. Abdin said. “He just comes to the mosque and comes home. He has no outside world.”
Mr. Chowdhury also had kind words for Mr. Akonjee. “There are a ton of imams, but he was a imam who you would want to hear his sermon.”