Bicyclist allegedly hit by suspect in Queens' imam's murder speaks out

NEW YORK (WABC) -- The bicyclist who may be at the center of solving the assassination of an imam in Queens spoke out to Eyewitness News.

David Hunter was apparently hit by the man police say shot and killed two people outside a mosque.

"Just denied having anything to do with it, nothing else," Morel's lawyer said.

Oscar Morel told his lawyer, and anyone who would listen Tuesday, that he is an innocent man.

He did not explain how a gun that is an exact ballistic match of the murder weapon used to kill an imam and his friend in Queens on Saturday, wound up in his house.

"When he saw the shooter, the first thing he wants to ask the shooter is why did you kill my innocent father," said Saif Uddin, the imam's son, through an interpreter.

He is not the only innocent victim.

"When I saw his face, for just those few seconds, I realized this person is totally abnormal, totally lost his control," said David Alshimiri, a hit-and-run victim.

Alshimiri uses a cane now to get around. Just days ago he was an active bike rider, but he won't be able to do that again for a while.

"Do you think he targeted you because he thought you were Muslim?" Eyewitness News Reporter Jim Dolan asked.

"Really I don't know, but he might," Alshimiri said.

"But you are sure he targeted you," Dolan said.

"Yes," Alshimiri said.

Alshemiri is the man on the bike who was struck, police believe, by Morel, the same man who allegedly shot and killed the Queens imam on Saturday.

Imam Maulama Akonjee and his friend Thara Uddin were walking home after prayers on Saturday afternoon, when they were shot and killed.

That was at 79th and Liberty in South Ozone Park, Queens.

The killer drove a black GMC Trailblazer and just moments later; a black trailblazer hit Alshimiri just a short distance away at Pine Street and Pitkin Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn, after the driver first cursed and then apparently turned towards Alshimiri, who is from Iraq.

"I thought I am done, I said, 'I'm done, that's it,'" Alshimiri said.

"You thought you were going to die?" Dolan asked

"Yeah," Alshimiri said.