New Jersey imam shot dead outside mosque, no suspect or motive identified

A New Jersey imam was gunned down outside his mosque before dawn Wednesday, leaving authorities hunting for a shooter and saying they’ve found no evidence yet that an anti-Muslim bias played a part in the shooting.

Imam Hassan Sharif was in his car when he was shot more than once at about 6 a.m. near the Masjid-Muhammad Mosque in Newark, the state’s largest city. He was taken to a nearby hospital but died in the afternoon.

The incident came as authorities have beefed up the presence of law enforcement since Oct. 7 at all houses of worship in New Jersey, but especially mosques and synagogues. About 320,000 of the state’s roughly 9 million residents are Muslim.