Gruesome attack: Bullet-riddled bodies of 3 Muslim men found dumped in Indiana

Police say no reason to believe it was a hate crime

Authorities in Indiana, USA, are investigating the murders of two men and a teenager — part of an African Muslim community — who were found shot to death last week inside a Fort Wayne home, the Associated Press reported.

Police officers responding to a "problem unknown" dispatch on Wednesday evening had found the bodies of 23-year-old Mohamed Taha Omar, 20-year-old Adam Kamel Mekki and 17-year-old Muhannad Adam Tairab.

Police Chief Garry Hamilton told the local WANE-TV that each of the victims had multiple bullet wounds while the Allen County Coroner's Office said that the deaths have been ruled as homicides.

The families of the three men hailed from central Africa and belonged to a community that is heavily Muslim, Hamilton and Fort Wayne Safety Director Rusty York told the (Fort Wayne) Journal-Gazette, though neither knew whether the three were religious.

However, York says authorities don't have any reason to believe the killings were a hate crime.

Vox Media published a story Saturday that called the killings "mysterious," prompting people on social media to question why it did not receive wider news coverage. The killings came the same week as mass shootings in Kalamazoo, Michigan; Hesston, Kansas; and near Belfair, Washington.

The residence where the bodies were found was known as a party house for teens and young adults of African descent, York told WPTA-TV.

A day of remembrance was held at the Islamic Center of Fort Wayne on Saturday for Omar and Tairab, who had immigrated to the US in the last decade, WANE-TV reported.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 29^th,  2016.