Last Friday, when a gunman killed Naeem Hussain in a
parking lot
of Albuquerque, the authorities of the city, of half a million inhabitants, thought they had found the key to solving the death of three other Muslim men in recent months.
Until then, the trickle of victims had not aroused suspicion in a city that sees an upturn in armed violence, but the fact that the last three homicides were concentrated in the last two weeks allowed the authorities to establish an apparently clear relationship.
The police of this town in New Mexico announced on Tuesday the arrest of the "main suspect" of the crimes, apparently connected to each other since three of the victims attended the same mosque, that of the Islamic Center of New Mexico.
Hussain, 25,
He had acquired US nationality weeks before he was shot dead in a city parking lot, a "safe place for immigrants" according to the official proclamation made by his authorities during Donald Trump's term.
Recently arrived immigrants and Muslims born and raised in the US coexist in the community.
The identity of the four victims is disparate in age and origin, as well as in occupations: from a driver to a university professional.
They were only united by their religious confession, and their attendance at the aforementioned mosque, a coincidence that helped the police but also sowed panic among the Muslims living in the city.
The hypothesis of hate crime has gained strength since the weekend and this was reflected, on Sunday, by two tweets from President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who, in addition to expressing their condolences, showed their concern about what happened.
At least 300 Afghans have arrived in the city in the last year thanks to the repatriation program established by the Pentagon for those who collaborated with the international coalition troops in Afghanistan,
after the military withdrawal that followed the return to power of the Taliban, a year ago now.
Almost half of the city's population is of Latino origin and there is 38% white.
The chief of investigations of the Albuquerque Police, Cecily Barker, shows photos of a car related to the murders, last Sunday, in Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA). Adolphe Pierre-Louis (AP)
Biden's message, which said he felt "angry and sorry" for the four deaths, testified to "my Administration's strong support" for the affected community.
He was the first to name the sequence of murders as hate crimes, a hypothesis that was also endorsed by the Anti-Defamation League, one of the main Jewish lobbies in the US, which denounced the events as an example of "selective violence and hateful against the Muslim community [which] has no place in our society.”
Debbie Almontaser, a well-known Muslim activist from New York, tweeted Tuesday the Albuquerque police poster showing the suspicious vehicle.
"Four Muslim men in #Albuquerque, New Mexico were shot to death in what is called 'targeted killing'," she had denounced on Sunday on Twitter,
A dark gray sedan of a German brand aroused all suspicion, due to its presence in the parking lot where Hussein, who had just opened a transport company, was assassinated.
Screening of city security cameras led to the suspect.
Police detained and questioned a father and two sons as part of the investigation, but it is not known if one of the three is arrested.
The $20,000 reward is still in effect for anyone who can provide clues about the author(s), although he is believed to have been a single individual.
The first victim was Mohammad Ahmadi, 62, from Afghanistan, killed last November outside the grocery store he ran with his brother.
Muhammad Afzaak Hussain, 27, left Pakistan to study at the University of New Mexico, whose alumni association he chaired before turning to urban planning.
He also helped organize the campaign of a local congresswoman, Melanie Stansbury.
The third victim, Aftad Hussein, 41, also of Pakistani origin, worked in a cafe in the city.
The fourth, the Afghan Naeem Hussain, was found dead on Friday, hours after attending the funeral of the previous two, who died, respectively, on July 26 and August 1.
The city police, facing a patent shortage of personnel while the number of homicides and violent crimes is unleashed, is now trying to find the common thread that relates the deaths, all of them by firearm.
The succession of events has frightened the Muslim community, according to local media reports, especially if they must venture through the streets of the city at night.
Police records, however, refer to few attacks on the Muslim community in the last five years.
Between 2017 and 2020 there was an attack.
In 2016, on the other hand, there were six Muslims out of a total of 25 attacks for reasons of racial, ethnic or religious hatred.
Ahmad Assed, president of the Islamic Center of New Mexico, the mosque that links three of the victims, explained that according to the version that the authorities had transferred to him, the suspect is a Sunni Muslim who could have attacked the men angry because his daughter was going to marry a representative of that community, a minority in Islam and considered deviant or heretical.
The places of origin of the victims, Afghanistan and Pakistan, are consistent with the Shiite affiliation -there are important Shiite minorities in both countries- but, if this version is confirmed, the consideration of the hate crime would take a turn to allow spurious elements such as the personal revenge.
Police have declined to answer questions about the suspect's motivations and referred journalists to further news conferences.
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