“We understand the concerns about the possibility that this was hate-motivated, and we will exhaust every lead to determine if that is the case,” said Police Chief Chris Blue in a statement. The statement on the department’s official Twitter account on the case came on Tuesday evening, within hours of the shooting.
Some in the Muslim community are calling for a federal investigation.
Muslim Advocates, a national legal advocacy and educational organization, said on Wednesday that they want U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama to “directly and forcefully publicly condemn this heinous attack and remind the public that these acts have no place in civil society.”