Akbar Muhammad, the 36-year-old son of a longtime leader in
Newark's Muslim community, was likely the target of a spray of gunfire
that left two dead and three others hurt in the city on Tuesday, law
enforcement sources told The Star-Ledger. Muhammad died at the scene.
(Courtesy Muhammad Family)
NEWARK — A
Newark imam’s son was the likely target of a gunman who opened fire on
five people in a vehicle parked on a city street Tuesday, killing the
man and a woman and wounding three others, law enforcement sources told
The Star-Ledger today.
Akbar Muhammad, the 36-year-old son of Imam Abdul Akbar Muhammad of
Ali. K. Muslim mosque, and Shante Spivey, 28, of East Orange, died when
the vehicle they were in was sprayed with gunfire near Springfield and
Fairmount avenues at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, prosecutors said.
Muhammad was in the driver’s seat and died at the scene, while Spivey
succumbed a short time later at University Hospital, prosecutors said.
Muhammad was likely the target of the attack, according to two law
enforcement sources, who requested anonymity because they were not
authorized to discuss the case. They would not comment further.
The three other victims, including a teenager and the owner of a
nearby business, were listed in stable condition at University Hospital
and are expected to survive.
A statement from the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office said that
homicide task force detectives “are actively pursing leads and reviewing
evidence in efforts to bring the person or persons responsible for
these homicides to justice.”
Akbar Muhammad had a lengthy criminal record that included arrests
for assault, weapons possession, drug offenses and robbery, according to
documents obtained by The Star-Ledger. In 2011, he was charged with
shooting at another man. He was released from the Essex County
Correctional Facility in January 2012, according to the documents.
But recently, relatives said, the 36-year-old was trying to change
his life and had become heavily involved in his father’s work in the
Muslim community.
Imam Muhammad declined a request for an interview, but released a
statement detailing his son’s devotion to the family’s mosque in the
Central Ward.
"As a family and community, we are dealing with the loss of our son.
His focus was on working with me and the community here to build this
mosque and community space from the ground up, and we were successful,"
the father said. "He was committed to that and that’s how we remember
him, by continuing to soldier forward serving our Lord, the community
and the people of Newark."
