During a detention hearing Monday, Judge John Robbenhaar found there was enough evidence to keep Said in custody, according to Scott Howell, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Syed’s attorney, John C. Anderson, called claims that his client could be connected to the killings “excessively thin and speculative.” The murders took place between November 2021 and August this year, with the latest three occurring within a two-week period. Mohammad Ahmadi was the first victim in November 2021, followed by Aftab Hussein on 26 July, Muhammad Afzaal Hussain on 1 August and the death of Naeem Hussain on 5 August. All the victims were of South Asian origin. The elder Syed is being held on murder charges for two murders and is the prime suspect in the other two deaths. Mohamed Said denied any involvement in the killings during an interview with police, according to an arrest affidavit. In an arrest motion filed Friday, prosecutors described how Shaheen Syed — also known as Maiwand Syed — was “a flight risk and a serious danger to the community.” The motion cited alleged false information Syed told investigators when asked about the shootings, whether he bought guns with his father and whether he was in the suspect vehicle when the guns were purchased. Despite initially claiming he was not in a Volkswagen Jetta at the time of the purchase, investigators discovered Syed and his father went to an Albuquerque gun store on July 15 and took two guns — a handgun and a rifle, according to the movement. “Officers found both of these firearms when a search warrant was recently executed at the defendant’s home, and both of these firearms were partially painted white,” the motion said. In addition, investigators found that Syed knowingly wrote down a false address in Florida when he bought a rifle on June 9, 2021, the motion said. Investigators also analyzed data from cellphone towers and found that both Syed’s and his father’s phones were in the general area of Naeem Hussain’s Aug. 5 murder. “There appears to be no reasonable reason for the defendant to have been in the area of the murder so soon after Mr. Hussain’s murder,” the motion said. Anderson, Syed’s attorney, said in a written response: “If either the United States or the State of New Mexico has enough evidence to charge the defendant with a more serious crime, they are certainly free to do so. But in the absence of sufficient evidence even to charge the accused with complicity in these murders, he cannot be detained on that basis.’ A court hearing for Syed’s father, Mohamed Syed, was postponed until Wednesday as the case was moved from Bernalillo County Metro Court to District Court. Mohamed Said is expected to appear at a detention hearing Wednesday afternoon. He was charged with murder for the July 26 killing of Aftab Hussein and the August 1 killing of Muhammad Afzaal Hussain. CNN’s Ashley Killough and Ed Lavandera contributed to this report.
