Recently, there have been a string of seemingly related murders in New Mexico,
specifically in Albuquerque, targeting the Muslim community.
In fact, there have been four in just the last bit, last half year or
so, people are incredibly terrified.
We're hearing is the president of the Islamic Center of New Mexico,
targeting about people, the community's reaction to this violence.
They're panicked, some people want to move from the state until this thing is over,
some people have moved from the state.
And the brother of one of the most recent victims says,
I'm scared to go outside of my apartment,
I'm scared to sit on my balcony, and so there does seem to be a pattern here.
Three of the victims were all ambushed with no warning, fired on, and
killed, and in fact, this is one of the most devastating parts of this story.
Hours before his death, one of the most recent victim's name, Hussain,
who just became a US citizen, attended a funeral for two of the other
shooting victims, and then within hours he became the latest victim.
And one of the relatives says, my kids do not even allow me to step
out of my apartment, they say, dad, it's scary.
We planted some flowers in our yard, we haven't watered them, they said no,
somebody might be hiding over there.
So the kids are worried about even going into their yard, and understandably so,
the police are apparently looking for a suspect.
The only information they seem to have is a photo of a car, and
the story could be developing quickly if it's actually being prioritized.
But I can totally understand why this community would be just terrified, that
an apparent serial killer could be out there targeting members of this community,
seemingly at random with no warning, it's terrifying.
>> Yeah, I mean it reminds me of when I lived in D.C during the D.C sniper, and
this goes back to early two thousands, and
people were afraid of going to a gas station or home depot.
Because, the sniper had shot a dozen people at some of these locations,
totally at random.
And so yeah, and what's particularly terrifying here, is this isn't just sort
of random shooting, they are specifically targeting Muslims, perhaps Muslim men.
And so, it's frightening, and it's horrible, and I'm so
glad that perhaps more people are paying attention to this, and
maybe somebody will recognize the car, maybe a tip that will come in.
Somebody will know somebody who's been mouthing off about Muslims through
the years, who may have been suspicious and perhaps, at some point, the police can
crack this case and people can have some sense of peace, because this is horrible.
>> Well, the mayor and the governor have responded to this,
Tim Keller is the mayor says, in my opinion, clearly it is hate-driven.
They're obviously targeting Muslim men, and
they are happening right here in our own refugee community.
The Governor,
Grisham announced, she'll send additional state police to Albuquerque.
The city is also increasing police presence at mosques,
Muslim-affiliated schools, and the University of New Mexico.
Now, of course, America, in some areas specifically like New York,
have not a great history of when they send additional,
forces like that to these areas.
So it'll be interesting to see what the community thinks about that,
obviously they've got to be terrified of being targeted.
And it's just, how many strings of violence,
either soul mass shootings that we had in Buffalo,
there was the incident in El Paso, these sorts of things happen so frequently.
There was the killing of Asian women working at massage parlors,
clearly racially motivated mass acts of violence.
And yet as a country, we can't even acknowledge that that exists, that
racism is a problem, that white supremacy, and we don't know in the end who will be
the killer here, but it certainly seems like one of those ideologies at work.
And yet it still remains up for debate in this country,
if we have a problem of racially-motivated violence.
>> Yeah, and I wish, I mean, look,
if more people were sensitive to racial aspersions that were being cast on people,
there might be a better chance for police to actually catch somebody like this.
In most cases are cracked, not by law enforcement stumbling upon somebody who's
doing a shooting, but by somebody saying, you know what, I have this friend I had
a falling out with, and he's been saying some really crazy things.
And he's been disparaging about Muslim people, whatever it is, and
he calls the police and that's how the police get a tip.
And I just hope that people would say,
this is a time when it's okay to be sensitive.
Even if you don't like Black people, Latinos, or Muslims,
at least accept that people don't deserve to die because of that.
And if you know somebody who may be prone to violence, maybe they share the same
political views as you do, at least say, wait a second, this goes too far.
I'm going to call the police because I get somebody who's talking about
violence here, and that's not right.
Yeah, and thankfully,
as as you said, that is sometimes how this ends up getting cracked.
There have been potential school shooters that have been thankfully, there have been
warnings, all too often the warnings don't come or aren't heated in time.
But in some cases, and so, someone has to know this person, hopefully with the photo
of the car being out, more people watching for this, more police, maybe they'll be
able to catch this person, we can get a little bit of justice.
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