According to police, 51-year-old Muhammad Saeed of Albuquerque was the main man responsible for the killing of four Muslim men in the city between November and August. is a suspect.
Said denied any involvement in his murder in an interview with police on Tuesday, according to his arrest affidavit.
One of his recovered firearms was associated with bullet casings found at the scene of two murders. According to the arrest affidavit, Sheen.
Syed told police he drove to Texas to find a new place for his family to live "because conditions were bad in Albuquerque," referring to the murder of a Muslim man. The affidavit states:
On Wednesday, he appeared in court via video from the jail.
Through a Pashto interpreter, he asked to address the court at the hearing. His attorney, Megan Mitsunaga, asked the court not to take statements from her client.
Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court Judge Rene Torres also advised Said that silence was best for him. "Good," Said replied.
Syed's case will be removed to district court. Meanwhile, he is unrestrained and restrained.
When announcing Saeed's arrest on Tuesday, Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina said two others of his, 62-year-old Mohammad Zaher Ahmadi, had been killed in November. He said the agency was cooperating with the district attorney's office regarding the man's possible death. Naeem Hussain, 7, and his 25-year-old Naeem Hussain were killed on August 5 after attending the funerals of his two other victims.
There is "sufficiently strong" evidence that authorities continue to view Said as the "most likely person of interest or suspect" in these killings, the city said. said Kyle Hartsock, deputy commander of the police's Criminal Investigations Division. said Tuesday.
Murders and Investigation Developments
Syed Accused Killings -- Aftab Hussein and Muhammad Afzaal Hussain -- By Hartsock , the incidents were only days apart, and police quickly connected them after determining that the shell casings found at both crime scenes were likely fired from the same firearm.
"We immediately began investigating other potentially similar cases to confirm that there may indeed be an active public threat," Hartsock said. added Mr.
Police then turned their attention to another unsolved murder in the city: the 7 November killing of an Afghan man, Mohammad Ahmadi. Brother.
All three killings involved Muslim men who were "ambushed, shot and killed without warning," Hartsock said.
Aftab Hussein was found lying next to his car on July 26 with multiple gunshot wounds, according to police. According to the complaint, the attacker was found to have been ambushed behind bushes near the driveway.
Muhammud Afzaal Hussain was found with multiple gunshot wounds on August 1 by police responding to a report of a drive-by shooting, the complaint said.
A fourth Muslim man, Naeem Hussain, was shot dead before midnight on 5 August while police were still trying to piece together whether the three killings were linked. 56}
Albuquerque's Muslim community has also triggered hundreds of reports to law enforcement, officials said Tuesday.
Who is Muhammad Said?
Syed is the father of his six children, whose family has lived in the United States for about six years after emigrating from Afghanistan, his daughter, she told CNN. rice field.
``My father is not a killer. It came from a shooting," she said. CNN.
Her daughter told CNN that she married a man in February 2018. Her father was not happy with the marriage at the time, but she has recently come to accept it, and her husband is a friend of her two victims, Aftab Hussein and her Naeem Hussain. she said.
Syed has had several previous "minor arrests (from Albuquerque police) for domestic violence" and other incidents, he said, Hartsock. According to Hartsock, all three previous domestic violence accusations faced by Sayid have been dismissed.
