The Fayette County Sheriff’s Office is investigating what appears to be the shooting out of four windows at a local Muslim place of worship on Tuesday morning.
Deputies responded to a 2 a.m. alarm at the Prince Agakhan Shia Ismaili Jamatkhana located at 122 Flat Creek Trail in Fayetteville. When they arrived, they saw four of the building’s windows had been damaged.
Upon further investigation, deputies learned that the damage was the result of them being shot from the outside. No one was inside the jamatkhana at the time of the incident.
Detective Josh Shelton with the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office says at this point there are no leads on who may have done this or why, and he is urging anyone with information to contact the Sheriff’s Office.
Shelton said this jamatkhana is located near enough to residential homes that it would have been likely that someone would have heard shots, though nobody called to report anything.
In terms of motives, Shelton said investigators have “no idea why someone might have done this, and certainly are not jumping to any conclusions. Right now we’re just looking for information.”
Shelton said to his understanding a jamatkhana is a place for Muslims to gather and worship, similar to a mosque but different in that you must be a member, whereas mosques are generally open to the public.
A shooting at a religious building raises the possibility of an anti-Muslim motive, but Shelton said those sorts of questions can’t be answered until a suspect is found.
“This is not the sort of thing we see every day and it’s certainly something we’re taking very seriously.”
Shelton also said there was no evidence that anyone entered the building or did anything else besides shoot out the windows.
Fayette County Sheriff’s Detectives are requesting that anyone with information about this incident please call the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office at 770-461-6353. |
