Police: Three Sudanese Immigrants Shot 'Execution Style' in Indiana
Three young immigrants from Sudan –– two Muslims and a Christian –– were shot “execution style” last week in an abandoned house in Fort Wayne, Ind., where authorities are without a motive in the killings.
Rusty York, the city’s public safety director, told WANE-TV there’s no evidence at this point to suggest the homicides on Wednesday were hate related, but the investigation remains open. Federal investigators who track possible hate crimes are involved, authorities said.
Fort Wayne Police Chief Garry Hamilton told media outlets that the victims were not known gang members, but he added that it’s too early to say if their deaths were gang related.
The victims were identified as Mohamedtaha Omar, 23; Adam Kamel Mekki, 20, and Muhannad Adam Tairab, who was 17. Each victim appeared to have been ordered to lie down before each was shot several times, authorities said.
Motasim Adam, founder and vice president of the Darfur People's Association, visited with the victims’ families over the weekend and later told The Associated Press that Omar and Tairab were Muslim and Mekki was Christian.
The residence where the bodies were found, just east of downtown Fort Wayne, was known as a “party house” for teens and young adults of African descent, the city’s public safety director told WPTA-TV in Fort Wayne.
Abdelaziz Hassab, a relative of Omar and Tairab, said the young men immigrated to the United States in the past decade. “We’re from war zones,” he told reporters, explaining that he and the victims came to the United States “to find peace and security.”
