Man charged with NM killings denies involvement

Muhammed Syed, 51, whom police charged with the murders of two of four Muslim men killed in Albuquerque in the past nine months, denied any involvement with the slayings, according to a criminal complaint made public Tuesday night. Police pulled over Syed, an Afghan immigrant in his fifth year in the United States, about a hundred miles from his Albuquerque home. They found bullet casings in his car that matched the caliber of the weapons believed to have been used in two of the killings. Syed said police pulled him over while he was headed to Houston to look for a new home after he became unnerved by the recent killings of Muslims in Albuquerque.

What’s the motive for the killings? Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina said it is uncertain whether the killings were racially or religiously motivated crimes, serial killings, or both. A police statement said that Syed knew the victims to some extent and interpersonal issues could have led to the shootings. Syed was accused of attacking his daughter’s boyfriend in 2017 and was arrested in 2018 after a fight with his wife turned violent. Neither of the victims filed charges, however. The leader of the Islamic Center of New Mexico told the Albuquerque Journal that Syed was asked to leave the mosque in 2020 because security guards suspected him of slashing a car’s tires in the parking lot.

Dig deeper: Read Sophia Lee’s report in WORLD Magazine about families in Virginia reaching out to Afghan refugees.