Police said they plan to charge 51-year-old Muhammad Syed with murder in the slaying of Aftab Hussein, 41, and Muhammed Afzaal Hussain, 27. Officers are still investigating a possible link between Syed and the fatal shootings of two other men.
Deputy Police Commander Kyle Hartsock said at a news conference Tuesday that police began investigating Syed following a tip from the community that led officers to get a warrant to search his house and car.
As officers arrived at Syed’s home Monday to execute the warrant, they saw Syed enter a Volkswagen Jetta — the same kind of vehicle they had earlier advertised to the public — and drive away. Some officers followed and detained Syed in Santa Rosa, N.M., Hartsock said. Police found multiple firearms in Syed’s home and vehicle, Hartsock added, including at least one that matches bullet casings found at the scenes of two killings.
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“We tracked down the vehicle believed to be involved in a recent murder of a Muslim man in Albuquerque,” Medina tweeted. “The driver was detained and he is our primary suspect for the murders. We will update the media later this afternoon.”
The killings took place between November 2021 and August of this year, with the latest three occurring within the span of two weeks. All of the victims were of South Asian descent.
While police have not provided details on exactly how the killings unfolded, they have said three of the victims — Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, 27; Aftab Hussein, 41, and Mohammad Ahmadi, 62 — were “ambushed with no warning, fired on and killed.”
