Shooter does not meet the requirements for a ‘hate crime’ charge.
via NY Daily News
A Texas teen has been arrested for fatally shooting an Iraqi refugee watching his first-ever snowfall, police said.
Nykerion Nealon, 17, was arrested early Friday after gunning down Ahmed al-Jumaili outside his Dallas apartment complex March 4, Maj. Jeff Cotner told reporters alongside the victim’s father-in-law Friday.
Al-Jumaili was shot in front of his wife and brother, three weeks after fleeing Iraq to be in a safer place and reunite with his wife, who had moved to America a year earlier.
Nealon, who went by the nickname Kaca, did not know al-Jumaili and shot him while seeking revenge, Cotner said. Someone reportedly shot at his girlfriend’s apartment in a neighboring complex, making Nealon round up three buddies to look for the suspect, a witness told police. They went to Nealon’s apartment to get his assault rifle and then headed to Al-Jumaili’s apartment complex.
The thug saw al-Jumaili taking pictures of the snow and raised his rifle, one of his friends told police. The friend took cover under bushes and heard shots ring out, he said.[…]
Al-Jumaili’s shooting was targeted, but not because of his religion or race, Cotner said. It may have been a result of gang activity in the apartment complexes.
“We don’t believe he knew his ethnicity, but what he did know is he was in search of the individual responsible for shooting his girlfriend’s apartment,” Cotner said.[…]
Al-Jumaili’s family is not the only group devastated by the attack, said Salem, the executive director of the local Council on American-Islamic Relations.
“Our community has been at a loss for words and very saddened,” she said.