Sandals lay on a street corner at the crime scene, Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016, not far from the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid Mosque in the Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens, New York, where the leader of a New York City mosque has been fatally shot and an associate has been wounded in a brazen daylight attack. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
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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.
Sandals mark the crime scene, Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016, not far from the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid Mosque in the Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens, New York, where the leader of a New York City mosque has been fatally shot and an associate has been wounded in a brazen daylight attack. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
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.
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