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Albuquerque Police and FBI Arrest Muhammad Syed in Killings of Muslim Men

Charged in two of four shootings, the 51-year-old was named the primary suspect in all of them after a gun found in his home was tied to two scenes.

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Muhammad Syed in an Albuquerque police booking photograph

For nine months, someone had been shooting Muslim men in Albuquerque. Mohammad Zaher Ahmadi, 62, a native of Afghanistan, was killed on November 7, 2021. Then, in the space of eleven days that summer, came three more: Aftab Hussein, 41, on July 26, 2022; Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, 27, on August 1; and Naeem Hussain, 25, on the night of August 5, hours after he had attended the burial of the two men killed before him. The three Pakistani men killed in 2022 worshipped at the same mosque, and fear spread through the city's Muslim community.

On Tuesday, August 9, the Albuquerque Police Department and the FBI announced an arrest. Muhammad Syed, 51, originally from Afghanistan, was being charged with the murders of Aftab Hussein and Muhammad Afzaal Hussain. Police called him the primary suspect in all four killings.

The break came from a car. Over the weekend, police had released photographs of a vehicle of interest, and tips from the Muslim community followed. On Monday, as detectives prepared to search Syed's home in Southeast Albuquerque, he drove away in the Volkswagen Jetta they believed had been used in at least one of the murders. He was stopped that night off Interstate 40 at Santa Rosa, heading east toward Texas, by state police with Albuquerque officers and FBI agents assisting. "It was not a high speed chase, it was a traffic stop," Deputy Commander Kyle Hartsock said.

Detectives said bullet casings had linked the killings of Aftab Hussein and Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, and the gun used in both was found during the overnight search of Syed's home. They also said they had found evidence that the killer knew the victims to some extent, and that an interpersonal conflict may have led to the shootings. Police said they were still investigating the motive.

"This has been a tough week for our community," Police Chief Harold Medina said. "But we all pitched in to solve these crimes and protect a community that felt like it was under attack." He said detectives would keep working with the district attorney on charges in the deaths of Naeem Hussain and Mohammad Zaher Ahmadi.

District Attorney Raúl Torrez called the arrest only the beginning. "That will not be done until we secure a conviction and successful prosecution," he said. Ahmad Assed, president of the Islamic Center of New Mexico, thanked investigators on behalf of the families. "We will not ever forget," he said, "and we're hopeful that we have no further losses in our community."

On August 9, 2022, Syed had been charged in two killings and accused in two more. He had not been tried, and he was presumed innocent.

What came next. In March 2024 a jury convicted him of first-degree murder in the killing of Aftab Hussein (see Related News). Naeem Hussain's first name is spelled Nayeem in some reports; this story follows the Albuquerque Police Department.

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