Biden condemns ‘serial killings’ of Muslim men in New Mexico as police release photo of car of interest
Officials looking for dark gray or metallic charcoal Volkswagen Jetta from central part of state
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Police have released a photo of a “vehicle of interest” in connection with the killing of four Muslim men in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as Joe Biden weighed in on the violence.
Albuquerque Deputy Police Chief Cecily Barker said law enforcement is looking for a dark gray or metallic charcoal Volkswagen Jetta from central New Mexico, that could be connected to the attacks, which have all taken place since last November.
“While we await a full investigation, my prayers are with the victims’ families, and my administration stands strongly with the Muslim community,” the president wrote on Twitter. “These hateful attacks have no place in America.”
Law enforcement in New Mexico are now probing the deaths, the latest of which took place on Friday evening. The victim has not been named in that killing.
Investigators say that the other three Muslim men killed in the state’s largest city appear to have been targetted because of their religion and race.
Two of the men were members of the same mosque and were killed separately in July and August. Police say that there is a “strong possibility” that they are connected to the killing of a migrant from Afghanistan in November.
“The targeted killings of Muslim residents of Albuquerque is deeply angering and wholly intolerable,” New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham tweeted on Saturday.
Muhammed Afzaal Hussain, 27, a planning director for the city of Espanola who immigrated to the US from Pakistan, was shot dead on 1 August outside his apartment building.
His slaying came less than one week after Aftab Hussein, 41, was killed on 26 July near the city’s international district, police said.
Police are linking them to the 7 November murder of 62-year-old Mohammad Ahmadi, who is also a Muslim from Afghanistan, who was shot to death in a parking lot outside a halal supermarket.
Authorities say that the city is home to between 3,000 to 5,000 Muslims out of a total population of around 565,000 people.