Officials are searching for the shooter in the killing of an imam outside a Newark, New Jersey, mosque, as they work to determine what led up to the slaying of the man remembered as a beacon in his community.
Imam Hassan Sharif was shot several times outside the Masjid Muhammad-Newark on Wednesday just before the dawn prayer, authorities said. The imam, the mosque’s prayer leader, died hours later at a hospital.
“It does not appear that the Imam was a victim of a biased crime or that this is related to terrorism,” Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens II said at a Wednesday news conference.
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin said while evidence found so far doesn’t point to bias, investigators don’t yet know what motivated the shooting.
Authorities asked members of the public to come forward with any information Wednesday as police looked for video surveillance from the area.
“We don’t yet know all the details, but here is what we do know: Imam Hassan Sharif stood with the people of this city, and we will stand with him and his family,” Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka said in a release Wednesday.
The killing comes amid increasing reports of threats, violence and hate speech against Muslim and Jewish Americans since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October. The increase has had Muslims on high alert.
Rewards totaling at least $35,000 are being offered for information in the deadly shooting, including a $25,000 reward through CrimeStoppers, the Essex County Sheriff’s Office told CNN.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations and its New Jersey chapter on Thursday offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person who shot and killed Sharif.
“Due to the unprecedented spike in anti-Muslim bigotry and violence we have witnessed in recent weeks, local, state and national law enforcement authorities must thoroughly investigate the shooting of Imam Hassan Sharif and keep the Muslim community safe,” Nihad Awad, CAIR’s national executive director, said in a statement.
A spokesperson from the sheriff’s office told CNN on Thursday there had been no developments in the investigation following Wednesday’s news conference.
A large crowd gathered in Newark Wednesday to mourn Sharif, taking to the streets and chanting, “stop the killing.”
“If the imam is not safe at the masjid, none of us are safe,” one person told the crowd.
Daud Haqq, president of the Tri-State Imams Council, told CNN affiliate WABC he was shaken by his friend’s death.
“My heart is really hurting over him,” Haqq said. “This creates that sense of distress or a sense of fear.”
“I know that in light of global events and with a rise and bias directed at many communities we’re experiencing across our state, but particularly the Muslim community, there are many in New Jersey right now who are feeling a heightened sense of fear or anxiety,” Platkin said.
Authorities had already ramped up security around mosques and other places of worship statewide, Platkin said.
