A recent immigrant from Iraq was shot and killed outside his Dallas home in what some are calling a hate crime, according to a CNN report.
Nykerion Nealon, 17, was arrested March 12 and charged with the murder of Ahmed Al-Jumaili, 36. Al-Jumaili was outside photographing his first snowfall with his brother and wife at night when Nealon fired at least 15 rounds from an assault rifle. Al-Jumaili fled to his apartment and died less than an hour later from his injuries, according to a Los Angeles Times report.
Nealon was trying to locate people who earlier shot at his girlfriend’s apartment. He retrieved a rifle from his apartment and went to Al-Jumaili’s apartment complex with friends, according to the LA Times.
Al-Jumaili immigrated to the United States from Iraq less than three weeks earlier to escape ISIS militants and join his family, according to ABC. He obtained a refugee visa to live in the U.S., according to the LA Times.
“It’s possible [the family] could have been Shiite Muslims who feared persecution under ISIS, who are Sunni,” said Patrick Fowler, a sophomore who is considering majoring in economics and government. “Or that they . . . didn’t want to live under rule of an extreme Salafist organization whose members have prided themselves in unparalleled cruelty against both ethnic minorities and fellow Muslims.”
Dallas police have not classified the shooting as a hate crime. To do so, they need evidence the shooting was based on a characteristic such as race or faith. The shooter’s words or behavior must also indicate that his motives were rooted in hatred of that characteristic, said Deepa Iyer, who teaches Asian American studies at the University of Maryland.
“But even if the law doesn’t classify it as a hate crime per se, the community feels like it was,” said Iyer, who has worked with the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division. “The community feels that way primarily because there has a been a rash of hate crimes, hate violence and discrimination happening to Arab, Muslims and South Asians since 9/11.”
But the mainstream media often does not report on these hate crimes, Iyer said.
“Much of the violence against Muslims is not widely broadcasted, as in the case of the recent Chapel Hill shooting where no major news outlet reported the crime until days after it had happened,” said Roqaiya Shabbir, senior psychology major. “Even then, it was disputed strongly that it wasn’t a hate crime.”
North Dallas has a large community of Iraqi refugees. Many immigrants also live in the neighborhood where Al-Jumaili was shot, according to the LA Times.
Photo from Dallas Police Department.
