Brooklyn man charged in slaying of NYC imam, friend; motive unclear
A man suspected of gunning down an imam and his friend as they left a New York City mosque was arrested and charged with murder late Monday night, said police, who have not yet released a motive for the shooting deaths.
Police charged Oscar Morel, 35, with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the Saturday afternoon slayings of Imam Maulana Alauddin Akonjee and Thara Uddin near the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid mosque in the Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens.
Officers took Morel into custody late Sunday night outside a Brooklyn apartment as he approached a vehicle that police had linked to an unrelated hit-and-run and that matched the description of the shooting suspect’s getaway vehicle.