Transcript: Mayor Bill de Blasio, NYPD Commissioner William Bratton, and Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce Host Press Conference

August 15, 2016

Mayor Bill de Blasio: A few hours ago, I spoke at the funeral in Queens and offered condolences on behalf of all 8.5 million New Yorkers for the two good men that we lost, Maulana Akonjee and Thara Uddin. Two men of faith, two leaders of their community, two teachers, two guides, two people who helped to make their neighborhood and this city a better place – killed in cold blood. I offered my condolences but I also assured the members of the Bangladeshi community and of the Muslim community all over this city that the killer will be brought to justice. And as you’re about to hear, the NYPD is well on its way to fulfilling that mandate, bringing this case to fruition and bringing justice to a community that is hurting so deeply right now.

It’s also clear there’s a lot of fear in the community. It’s a very rare thing to see a cleric killed, and members of the Muslim community have been on edge because of the atmosphere already that existed in this country, particularly over the last few months in our national debate. So I assured the members of the community the NYPD would be out in force protecting community institutions, protecting Muslim communities all over the city, that will be all of the members of the NYPD, but as – it’s so important to remind everyone – that includes the 900 members of the NYPD who are Muslim-Americans and serve us all.

It is a painful time, but it’s a time where we will reaffirm that in this city, we believe an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. And we will work together to encourage the kind of harmony, the kind of unity that New Yorkers believe in, and we’ll work against these divisive voices that have become so strong in our country. And the best way for us to put that into action is to show the Muslim community that we will keep them safe, even in this difficult time. With that, I’d like to turn to Commissioner Bratton.

Police Commissioner William Bratton: Thank you Mr. Mayor. What we’d like to do now, a little more than 48 hours after the events of Saturday – the murder of these two men – is provide an update to you on where we are with our investigation. Over the past 48 hours detectives have worked tirelessly on this case of the murder of the imam and his associate on Saturday afternoon in Queens. Through extraordinarily diligent investigative efforts – and I want to compliment Bob Boyce and his detectives on their work – detectives were able to develop a strong lead into a suspect very early on based on an unrelated incident that occurred in Brooklyn approximately 10 minutes after the shooting in Queens, 3 miles away. The shooting occurred in Brooklyn and about 3 miles away in Queens we had a – excuse me, shooting in Queens, about 3 miles away we had an accident that occurred in Brooklyn that the detectives were able to determine was potentially linked to the shooting. Chief Bob Boyce will brief you on how this case came together so quickly and where we are with the investigation at this time, some 48 hours after the occurrence on Saturday afternoon.

Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce:  Good evening, everyone. At the crime scene of the double homicide on Liberty and 79th Street at about 3:50 in the afternoon, detectives immediately responded and were able to do a video canvass of that area. During that video canvass we were able to identify a vehicle, a black GMC Trailblazer, that fled the scene in a quick fashion. We also identified a person getting into that car and taking off directly after the homicide. I think we’ve put out the video of this individual running down the street. We were able to trace him video-wise into the car, and then he took off. He then went up to Liberty Avenue, made a right, and then disappeared into traffic, heading eastbound. Detectives immediately took that car, Trailblazer, put it into our data systems and came up with a car accident – a hit-and-run – that happened at the corner of Pine and Pitkin at around two o’clock in the afternoon. This is about three miles way. We immediately responded to that location and pulled video from that corner, and we looked at the two cars, and they were identical. We looked at stickers and decals on each of the windshields and they seemed identical. Again, we had no plate at that time. We couldn’t determine the alphanumeric on the yellow New York tag. At that point we began to do a grid search. We thought we had our person at this point, fleeing the scene of the crime. We have a witness from that hit-and-run, a male on a bicycle, who identified an individual – who said he could identify an individual. We then sat on a car that we found a couple of hours later in the vicinity of that hit-and-run and waited for that person to emerge from that block. That person emerged at about 10 o’clock last night and got into the vehicle. Detectives from the Fugitive Task Force Unit approached the car, and then he rammed the detectives’ car several times in an effort to get away. He was placed under arrest without any further incident and brought back to the precinct for more debriefing. We found the witness, and the witness picked that individual out of a photo array for doing the hit-and-run. We’re back looking at him for both crimes – the homicide and that. He is described as a male, Hispanic, 36 years old. We are not going to release his name at this point. We still have a long way to go in this investigation, and there’s no point to it now. We’ll have lineups later on tonight with individuals who observed the homicides. That’s where we stand right now in the investigation.

Question: In terms of the hate crime [inaudible] can you talk about that?

Chief Boyce: Motive right now has not been determined. We’re still drilling down on that as we go forward. That’s certainly on the table – a hate crime. Right now we can’t explain why this person was there. He was there just prior to that. We have him on video – about eight minutes prior to the homicide – and then he takes off directly after that. We’ll put those facts together and go forward and explore his life and see what’s going on, and then it’s possible to see if it’s either a hate crime or some other motive.

Question: [inaudible]

Chief Boyce: He’s from East New York, Brooklyn. We obtained a search warrant probably about half an hour ago. We’re now about to do a search warrant on his home. We’re obviously looking for the gun – the weapon that committed the homicide – as well as clothing that he wore at that point. We also have his vehicle. That’ll be taken to a facility, and we’ll do a proper search on that. We’ll need a search warrant for that as well. Other things may arise, Miles, as far as a phone search and things like that, and we’ll go forward that way.

Question: Is there any connection that you know of between this person you have in custody and the imam?

Chief Boyce: None that we can develop thus far, Jim. We took a hard look at this, and he’s from East New York – his address – and that’s the next area over in the 1-0-6 there, so right now we don’t have that yet.

Question: [inaudible]

Chief Boyce: I don’t want to get into that just yet because we’re not sure exactly. We believe he works in a warehouse somewhere in East New York, but we’re not sure where.

Question: [Inaudible]

Chief Boyce: Can’t comment on that either.

Question: How close does the suspect, the person look to the sketch that was put out? Good resemblance?

Chief Boyce: You know, the picture we had of him was several years old. I looked at that today – I was sent pictures – I don’t want to speculate on that, we’re doing lineups tonight. I don’t want to prejudice that lineup at all in any fashion by saying it looks close. Don’t want to say it.

Question: [Inaudible]

Chief Boyce: No, unfortunately that tape we did not put out. You saw the tape where both individuals were shot. He came up behind them. We followed that up the street. There doesn’t appear to be any words at all.

Question: [Inaudible]

Chief Boyce: No, not as of yet.

Question: [Inaudible]

Chief Boyce: We – yes, Jonathan. We believe this a strong person of interest right now, as the hours click forward, as we go through our identification procedures, we’ll of course get stronger in that. But we believe because of the evidence we’ve acquired thus far, that we strongly believe this is the individual.

Question: [Inaudible]

Chief Boyce: We do have some statements but I’m not going to speculate on those statements right now.

Question: [Inaudible]

Chief Boyce: Not going to mention – not going to say anything on that either.

Question: [Inaudible]

Chief Boyce: He’s being charged right now with the hit-and-run. That’s why we arrested him for, and of course, the assault on my police officers.

Mayor: Okay, everyone, thank you.