Muhammad
Syed, the man detained for the alleged murder of at least two Muslim men in
Albuquerque, New Mexico, had had a previous confrontation with one of the
victims, the brother of the victim told NBC News in an interview. The victim in
question is 62-year-old Mohammed Zaher Ahmadi. He was shot dead outside the
Ariana Halal Market & Café on November 7, 2021.

Syed has
not been charged with Ahmadi’s death, but he is the primary suspect. The
51-year-old Syed is also accused of the murder of Naeem Hussain on Friday. He
was charged with the murders of Aftab Hussein, 41, and Muhammad Afzaal Hussain,
27, on Wednesday.

Also Read | Albuquerque killings: Muslims shocked that shooter was ‘one of their own’

Hadi,
Mohammed Zaher Ahmadi’s brother, the man who spoke to NBC News, said Syed had
bought large quantities of rice and tried to sell them back to Hadi and Ahmadi
at their shop. Hadi said Ahmadi told him that he “didn’t like that kind of
person” and began to turn Syed away. “Don’t come inside. I don’t want any business
with you,” Hadi said.

While Syed
stopped visiting the store, in early 2020, Hadi and his wife noticed their car
tyres had been slashed. The couple reported the incident to the Islamic Center
of New Mexico and the mosque showed them a CCTV video of a man slashing the tyres
of the car. The man was identified as Muhammad Syed.

Syed was
later banned from services temporarily but returned without incident, NBC News
reported. “We put him on notice that he wasn’t welcome and gave a time frame of
several months before we would consider him coming back,” said Ahmed Assed,
president of the Islamic center, to NBC News.

“We
maintained a distance from the suspect and didn’t have him coming for a long
time,” Assed said. He added that many within Albuquerque’s Muslim community
were shocked when Assed was identified as a suspect in the killings. “It did
take us back a little bit,” he said, adding, “We’re a small community, and we
know one another.