Albuquerque police arrest suspect in killings of Muslim men, chief says

“There are recent arrivals who are fearful, and there are people who are US-born Muslims who are also on edge”

Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, have arrested a “primary suspect” in connection to the “recent murder of a Muslim man,” the agency chief has said.

Four Muslim men have been killed in the city since last winter.

Chief Harold Medina tweeted at 2.42pm on Tuesday that “we tracked down the vehicle believed to be involved in a recent murder of a Muslim man in Albuquerque. The driver was detained and he is our primary suspect for the murders. We will update the media later this afternoon”.

The most recent killing occurred on Friday in a city where hundreds of refugees have arrived from Afghanistan over the course of the last year following the US troop withdrawal from the country in August 2021, The New York Times reported.

Albuquerque Police released images on Sunday of a vehicle wanted in connection to the killings.

City residents have been worrying that a suspect could be targeting Muslims amid a citywide increase in murders.

Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, 27, was killed after moving from Pakistan to attend the University of New Mexico, becoming the graduate student association president before entering the field of city planning.

Another victim, 41-year-old Aftab Hussein, worked at a cafe in the city.

Naeem Hussain, 25, was murdered on Friday. He had started a trucking business and had become a US citizen just weeks before his death.

Mohammad Ahmadi, 62, was killed outside his grocery store in November of last year.

“There are recent arrivals who are fearful, and there are people who are US-born Muslims who are also on edge,” the Albuquerque Office of Equity and Inclusion director Michelle Melendez told The New York Times. “The victims are everything from professionals to students to working-class people.”

Police haven’t said much about their investigation into the killings ahead of the arrest on Tuesday. They asked for the public’s help to find the wanted vehicle and they have said that they think that one person is behind the killings.

Criminal Investigations Division deputy commander Kyle Hartsock said in a statement that “while we won’t go into why we think that, there’s one strong commonality in all of our victims: their race and religion”.

“We are taking this very serious, and we want the public’s help in identifying this cowardly individual,” he said.

Naeem Hussain’s brother-in-law told the paper that his death was shocking.

“There was never any indication of him feeling threatened or being scared of anything,” Ehsan Shahalami said. “On the contrary, he was very fond of Albuquerque. He wanted to give back to the place that took him in.”