Man charged with killing of New York imam and assistant

NEW YORK, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- A Brooklyn man has been charged for the shooting deaths of an imam and his assistant, police said Monday night.

Oscar Morel, 35, was arrested Sunday after police tied him to a hit and run approximately a mile from the shooting. Investigators also found a revolver and clothes that match what the killer was wearing in a video of the two men being shot in back of the head. He was officially charged Monday.

Morel faces two counts of second-degree murder for shooting and killing Maulama Akonjee, 55, and Thara Uddin, 65, and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, police said. The gun was found inside a section of the man's apartment wall that had been cut open and resealed.

The man's brother, Alvin said there was no anti-Muslim hatred in his family.

"The only time we felt, everybody in New York felt, a hatred, was during 9/11," he said. "Other than that, we never felt a hatred with nobody."

Amado Baptista, Morel's landlord, expressed shock as well.

"He never talked about anything like that. I don't understand how he could have done anything like this," he said.