Jury Convicts Muhammad Syed of First-Degree Murder in the 2022 Ambush Killing of Aftab Hussein in Albuquerque
The Afghan refugee was convicted in the first of three killings of Muslim men in the summer of 2022. He still faced trial in the other two.
Published
Aftab Hussein had just parked at his apartment complex in Albuquerque at around 10 p.m. on July 26, 2022, and had stepped out of his car with his keys still in his hand when the gunfire started. Prosecutors said the gunman had been lying in wait, and that he kept firing after Hussein went down. Hussein was 41. On Monday, March 18, 2024, a Bernalillo County jury found Muhammad Syed, an Afghan refugee, guilty of first-degree murder in his death.
It was the first trial in the three ambush killings that shook Albuquerque's Muslim community that summer, and it ended quickly. The jury deliberated for just under two hours. Syed faced a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
The case against him rested on his phone and his rifle. Prosecutors showed jurors cellphone data that put Syed's phone in the area when the shooting happened, and a ballistics expert testified that the casings and projectiles recovered from the scene had been fired from a rifle found hidden under Syed's bed. After the verdict, Deputy District Attorney David Waymire told City Desk ABQ that the most compelling evidence was the phone data showing Syed circling the immediate area for about 20 minutes, together with a note on his phone about testing an AK-47 on the day of the killing. The judge had barred prosecutors from directly introducing the statements Syed made to a detective under questioning; the defense had argued that the detective, working through an interpreter, did not adequately inform him of his right to a court-appointed lawyer.
His defense attorneys argued that nothing proved Syed was the one who pulled the trigger, pointing out that other adults in his household could get to his phone, his vehicle and the rifle. The defense called no witnesses, and Syed declined to testify. His lawyers said the conviction would be appealed once his other trials were over.
What the trial never supplied was a reason. Prosecutors acknowledged that no testimony and no court filing had addressed a possible motive or described any dealings between Syed and Hussein before the killing. "We were not able to uncover anything that we would indicate would be a motive that would explain this," Waymire said outside the courthouse.
Two more murder charges were still waiting. Syed was also accused of killing Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, a 27-year-old urban planner who was shot on August 1, 2022, while taking his evening walk, and Naeem Hussain, who was shot four days later as he sat in his vehicle outside a refugee resettlement agency on the city's south side. Police had also identified Syed as the suspect in the 2021 killing of another Muslim man, but no charges had been filed in that case.
Muhammad Afzaal Hussain's older brother, Muhammad Imtiaz Hussain, was in the courtroom to hear the verdict. The brothers had come to the United States from Pakistan for education and opportunity, and Muhammad Afzaal Hussain had been a student leader at the University of New Mexico before going to work for the city of Española. "It was a big loss," his brother said.
The case had broken open after the third killing, when authorities released photographs of a vehicle they believed was involved and the tips that followed led to Syed. He was stopped more than 100 miles from Albuquerque and denied any part in the killings, telling authorities he was on his way to Texas to find a new home for his family because the killings in Albuquerque worried him.
Sources
- Afghan refugee convicted of murder in New Mexico killing of Muslim man, Associated Press, via Fox News
- Guilty: Muhammad Syed convicted in first of three trials for Albuquerque's Muslim homicides, City Desk ABQ