The Fort Wayne Police Department (FWPD) will not stop until the person who murdered two Fort Wayne men and a teenager in late February is brought to justice.
“We will not give up,” FWPD Chief Garry Hamilton said.
According to the Associated Press (AP), officers responding to a “problem unknown” dispatch found the bodies of Mohamedtaha Omar, 23, Adam Kamel Mekki, 20, and Muhannad Adam Tairab, 17, inside a Fort Wayne home. Hamilton told reporters each victim was shot multiple times. The home in which the bodies were found is known to be a party house for teens and young adults of African descent, Hamilton said.
Omar and Tairab were Muslim, but Mekki was Christian, leading Hamilton to believe the incident was not a hate crime.
“Looking through the documentation and photos from the crime scene, I don’t see anything saying the victims were targeted solely because they were Muslims,” Hamilton said.
Though the Fort Wayne Muslim community is saddened by the murders, they agree the crime was not a result of anti-Islamic hate.
Instead, President of the Islamic Center of Fort Wayne Imam J. Tamir Rasheed said he believes it was the result of a rise in violence among the younger generation.
“What happened to these young men is a microcosm look at what is going on within society,” Rasheed said. “Especially among the youth, there seems to be this pervasive culture of violence.”
According to the Indiana Department of Correction Juvenile New Admissions and Annual Crime Reports, 439 juveniles were taken into police custody in 2014. About 60 percent of those arrests were due to property crimes or crimes against another person. Almost 90 percent of the juveniles arrested in 2014 were 15–17 years old.
In 2015, 723 juveniles were taken into police custody, and as of January 2016, 456 juveniles (37 percent of whom were arrested for violent crimes) remain in a juvenile facility.
“Something like this always makes you wonder are you doing enough, not just for a particular segment of the community, because every citizen has an important part to play in this,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton also extended his condolences to the family at the funerals of Omar and Tairab, both of whom immigrated to the U.S. in the past decade, according to the AP. Hamilton urged the community to help solve the crime.
“We cannot let this happen in our community anymore. I hope this is the very last incidence this ever happens within our community. I need you to not retaliate (and) take this upon yourself,” Hamilton said. “I need someone to come and tell me what they know.”
Hamilton said FWPD will meet with Fort Wayne community leaders, the District Attorney’s office, the FBI and the Department of Justice to discuss the ongoing investigation.
“I am pulling all of my resources out,” he said.
If you have information regarding this case, call the FWPD at (260) 427-1222.
