For the fourth time in nine months, a Muslim man has been found shot to death in Albuquerque. The man killed Friday night was in his mid-20s and from South Asia, USA Today reports. Police, who discovered his body after receiving a report of a shooting, declined to say whether the killing was done in a way similar to the other slayings, which have shaken the Muslim community in New Mexico and drawn condemnation from President Biden. "There is reason to believe this death is related to those shootings," Police Chief Harold Medina said in a news conference Saturday.
Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, 27, and Aftab Hussein, 41, were killed in the past week. They belonged to the same mosque and were both from Pakistan. Mohammad Ahmadi, 62, a Muslim man of South Asian descent, was killed in November. All three were "ambushed with no warning, fired on and killed," said police, who have not identified the man slain Friday. "Our community has been devastated, as you can imagine," said Ahmad Assed, president of the Islamic Center of New Mexico. "We have never gone through anything like this before." A post on President Biden's Twitter account said he is "angered and saddened" by the attacks, adding that his administration "stands strongly with the Muslim community."
Hussain was on the planning team for the City of Española, after receiving bachelor's and master's degrees in the field from the University of New Mexico, per CNN. "Our City staff has lost a member of our family," said a statement by the mayor, "and we all have lost a brilliant public servant who wanted to serve and improve his community." Rewards for information that helps bring about an arrest in the killings are being offered by the local Crime Stoppers and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. (More Muslim Americans stories.)
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