Muhammad Syed convicted of murdering Muslim Aftab Hussein

Publish date: 2024-08-13

An Afghan refugee charged with gunning down three Muslim men in New Mexico in 2022 has been found guilty of murder in one of the cold-blooded ambush slayings — but his motive remains a mystery.

Muhammad Syed, 53, was convicted Monday for the first-degree murder of 41-year-old Aftab Hussein — and still faces separate trials for the slayings of Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, 27, and Naeem Hussain, 25, just days apart in a spree that left his fellow Albuquerque Muslims living in fear.

He used an AK-47-style military rifle to shoot Hussein at least nine times from a hiding spot in some bushes — even when the victim was on the ground, according to the Albuquerque Journal.

Muhammad Syed, 53, a refugee from Afghanistan, has been convicted of first-degree murder in a 2022 ambush killing in Albuquerque, NM. AP
Syed fatally shot Aftab Hussein, 41, with a high-powered military rifle. Handout

“He stood no chance,” prosecutor Jordan Machin of Hussein, whose body was “destroyed” with wounds from his neck to his feet, some going right through his body and piercing a car.

Prosecutors said they were pleased with the initial conviction — but still baffled as to what drove the Afghanistan native who moved his family to the US several years before the killings.

“We were not able to uncover anything that we would indicate would be a motive that would explain this,” Deputy District Attorney David Waymire said outside the courthouse.

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“As best we can tell, this could be a case of a serial killer where there’s a motive known only to them and not something that we can really understand,” he added.

Prosecutors used cellphone data to show Syed’s phone was in the area when Hussein was shot, and a ballistics expert testified that casings and projectiles recovered from the scene had been fired from a Serbian-made Zastava Arms rifle found stashed under Syed’s bed.

He was arrested after police released photos of a car believed to be involved in the killing spree.

Prosecutors said Syed used an AK-47-style rifle that “destroyed” the victim’s body. AP
Aftab Hussein was shot nine times during the July 2022 ambush killing in Albuquerque. AP

He was pulled over more than 100 miles from Albuquerque, telling officers he was on his way to Texas to find a new home for his family — because he was concerned about the killings he was about to be charged with.

Syed also was eyed as a suspect in the killing of another Muslim man in 2021, but no charges have been filed in that case.

Syed’s attorney, Thomas Clark, tried to argue that there was “not one shred of evidence” he was the shooter, saying others who shared Syed’s home could access his phone, vehicle and rifle.

Syed was pulled over on Aug. 8, 2022, more than 100 miles from Albuquerque. AP

Syed, who speaks Pashto and required the services of a translator throughout the weeklong trial, tearfully declined to take the stand, and his defense called no witnesses.  

It took jurors less than two hours to reach the guilty verdict.

Syed now faces possible life in prison at sentencing. The defense said it would appeal once the other two trials end.

Nearly two years later, prosecutors still do not know what prompted Syed to commit murder. AP

The trio of killings happened between late July and early August 2022, leaving authorities scrambling to determine if race or religion might have been behind the streak of violence.

It was not long before the investigation shifted away from possible hate crimes to what prosecutors described to jurors as the “willful and very deliberate” actions of another member of the Muslim community.

Prosecutors earlier described him as having a violent past — but Syed’s public defenders argued that none of the domestic violence allegations previously filed resulted in convictions.

Altaf Hussain cries over the grave of his brother Aftab Hussein at Fairview Memorial Park in Albuquerque. AP

Syed also faces murder charges in the Aug. 1, 2022, killing of Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, an urban planner who was shot dead while taking his evening walk, and the Aug. 4 slaying of Naeem Hussain, who was gunned down as he sat in his vehicle outside a refugee resettlement agency.

All three were “ambushed with no warning, fired on and killed,” Kyle Hartsock, deputy commander of Albuquerque Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division, said at the time.

With Post wires

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