NEW YORK (AP) — The leader of a New York City mosque and an associate have been fatally shot in a brazen daylight attack.
Police say 55-year-old Imam Maulama Akonjee and his 64-year-old associate were shot in the back of the head as they left the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid mosque in Queens shortly before 2 p.m. Saturday.
Deputy Inspector Henry Sautner says Akonjee was killed. The other man was taken to a hospital, where he died.
Sautner says no motive has been determined.
But a man who worships at the mosque is blaming the shooting on anti-Muslim rhetoric from some political figures.
Millat Uddin says the shooting “could be a net result of the politics that is going on.”
The mosque serves a community of Bangladeshi immigrants.
