New Mexico Muslim killings: Afghan refugee charged in taking pictures detained, pending trial

Prosecutors throughout a detention listening to on Wednesday pointed to Muhammad Syed’s earlier document, which included allegations of home violence and a case through which he refused to cease for regulation enforcement after operating a purple mild. Charges in these circumstances have been finally dropped, however they argued that Syed’s historical past confirmed a sample of violence.

“The defendant is really incapable of following any sort of lawful orders or incapable of following the law, period,” mentioned John Duran, an assistant district lawyer. “The defendant has really no regard for any law. It seems apparent he has further no regard for any human life.”

Syed, 51, has denied any involvement within the killings that shook New Mexico’s Muslim neighborhood and his protection attorneys argued that he had no prison document for the reason that earlier circumstances weren’t pursued. They additionally tried to argue that he was not a flight threat and had lived on the identical deal with for 2 years.

Judge Joseph Montano denied a bid by Syed’s attorneys to have the defendant positioned on home arrest, discovering that no circumstances of launch would forestall him from leaving his residence or from committing a criminal offense.

The choose additionally pointed to a prison criticism that accused Syed of mendacity in anticipate the victims and the ballistic proof amassed by investigators to date.

“The weight of the evidence here is high,” Montano mentioned.

Syed was arrested August 8 greater than 160 kilometres from his Albuquerque residence. He instructed authorities he was on his approach to Texas, citing the ambush-style killings as his concern.

Police mentioned they obtained greater than 200 ideas and one from the Muslim neighborhood led them to the Syed household. Syed knew the victims, authorities have mentioned.

Syed is charged with homicide within the deaths of Aftab Hussein and Muhammad Afzaal Hussain. Hussein, 41, was slain on the night time of July 26 after parking his automotive within the common spot close to his residence. Afzaal Hussain, a 27-year-old city planner who had labored on the marketing campaign of a New Mexico congresswoman, was gunned down on Aug. 1 whereas taking his night stroll.

Syed is the first suspect — however hasn’t been charged — within the dying of Naeem Hussain, 25, who was shot Aug. 5 within the parking zone of a refugee resettlement company in southeast Albuquerque, and the slaying of Muhammad Zahir Ahmadi, a 62-year-old Afghan immigrant who was fatally shot within the head final November behind the market he owned within the metropolis.

According to the prison criticism filed by Albuquerque police, investigators decided that bullet casings present in Muhammad Syed’s car matched the calibre of the weapons believed to have been utilized in two of the killings and that casings discovered on the crime scenes have been linked to weapons discovered at Syed’s residence and in his car.

Federal authorities in court docket filings have pointed to cellular phone information and accused one in every of Syed’s sons of presumably serving to his father monitor Naeem Hussain earlier than he was killed. Shaheen Syed’s lawyer mentioned these accusations are skinny and dismissed prosecutors claims that the youthful Syed supplied a false deal with when buying a gun from an area store in 2021.