By Patrick Donachie
Muslim community members and leaders are urging the authorities to remain open to the possibility that the murder of the Ozone Park imam and his assistant were a hate crime.
A spokeswoman for the Queens district attorney’s office would not comment on the ongoing investigation into whether or not the motivation behind the attacks was based in bias. Complicating this effort, the authorities have been unable to determine a motive for the execution-style killing of Imam Maulana Akonjee and Thara Uddin as they were walking home from the Al-Furquan Jame Masjid mosque in Ozone Park Aug. 13.
Oscar Morel, 35, of East New York, was indicted by a grand jury on one charge of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon Monday, according to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. Morel faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if he is convicted.
At his arraignment Monday, Morel was assigned a new attorney named Michael Schwed. Speaking to reporters outside of the courthouse, Schwed said his client told him he was innocent and did not hate anyone of any faith. He also said that an eyewitness to the crime had picked the wrong person in a lineup.
“I was never served with any notice of a lineup,” he said, “the reason being whoever looked at the lineup identified the wrong person.
According to the criminal charges filed against Morel, Akonjee and Uddin were walking home from the mosque at 76-18 Glenmore Ave. in Ozone Park shortly before 2 p.m. Aug. 13. Morel allegedly approached the two men from behind near the intersection of 79th Street and Liberty Avenue and fired a weapon multiple times, striking both men in the head. The two men were transported to a hospital and were later pronounced dead.
The police found Morel after tracking down his vehicle, which authorities said was involved in a hit-and-run near the scene of the shootings. Police brought him in for questioning, and later arrested him in the murders. A subsequent search of his apartment uncovered a .38 caliber Taurus revolver hidden behind a wall, police said. Authorities said a ballistics test indicated the gun was the same one used in the shootings.
A spokeswoman for the Queens DA would not comment on the ongoing investigation into whether or not the motivation behind the attacks was based in bias. Queens has been the scene of several violent incidents involving Muslims in recent months, but only one was classified as a hate crime.
A December attack on a Muslim shop owner in Astoria led to hate crime charges against the suspect, while the June assault on a Muslim man outside of a Jamaica mosque was placed in Family Court because of the age of the defendant. The suspect in an April assault on a man inside the Jamaica Muslim Center has been charged but not with a hate crime, according to prosecutors.
At a funeral for the imam and his associate held Aug. 15, Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged a stronger police presence to protect Muslims praying at mosques, and other community members called for cameras and quicker response times from the NYPD.
The shooting comes in the midst of a contentious presidential campaign in which the perception of Muslim Americans has increasingly become a focal point due to Donald Trump’s suggestion of a ban on Muslim immigration into the United States.
Morel is due back in court on Sept. 1 at Queens Supreme Court in Kew Gardens.
Reach reporter Patrick Donachie by e-mail at pdona
