Oscar Morel, 35, pleaded "not guilty" in a New York court on charges he shot and killed a Muslim cleric and his assistant outside a mosque. Police say they found the handgun used in the attack at Morel's house, but his attorney said he denies the charges. (Reuters)

Oscar Morel, 35, pleaded "not guilty" in a New York court on charges he shot and killed a Muslim cleric and his assistant outside a mosque. Police say they found the handgun used in the attack at Morel's house, but his attorney said he denies the charges. (Reuters)

Hours after 1,000 mourners attended the funeral for a Queens imam and his assistant, police announced Monday evening that they had charged a man with murder in the bold daylight killings of the two men.

Police said that they have arrested Oscar Morel, 35, and charged him with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon. He had been taken into custody on Sunday in connection with a hit-and-run that occurred about 10 minutes after the killings and three miles away in Brooklyn.

New York City Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said earlier Monday that police believed that the car was the same one identified in surveillance-camera footage as having “fled the scene” of the killings. “We also identified a person running into that car and taking off directly after the homicide,” he said.

When New York detectives tried to arrest the man Sunday night, “he rammed the detectives’ car several times in an attempt to get away,” Boyce said. A witness to the hit-and-run was later able to pick that man out of a lineup, he said.

Police said that the charges against Morel, of Brooklyn, were upgraded after they found a gun and clothes similar to ones shown on the camera footage.

Many in the Bangladeshi immigrant community in Queens see the killing as a hate crime, though police have not identified a motive. (Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images)

The development is likely to bring some solace to the tense Bangladeshi immigrant community in the Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens, two days after the religious leaders were shot at point-blank range after leaving their mosque.

Among those attending the funeral services for Imam Maulama Akonjee and assistant Thara Uddin on Monday afternoon was New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), who promised justice and protection for the city’s Muslims.

“I want to say very clearly, New York City is a better place and a stronger place because of our Muslim communities,” said de Blasio, who began and ended his speech with “As-salaam wa aleikum” — “Peace be upon you” — and quoted from the Koran. “We know there are voices all over this country spewing hate,” he told the crowd. “We’re not going to listen to those voices that try to divide us.”

De Blasio promised extra police protection around mosques in the coming days, an announcement that was met with applause.

[Trump proposes an ideological test for Muslim immigrants and visitors to U.S.]

Police blocked off several roads around the Brooklyn parking lot where the funeral was held, and scores of officers worked to secure the event, setting up barricades to keep spectators from swarming the black hearses and the speakers’ tent.

Community volunteers handed out water in the searing heat as a lineup of speakers addressed the vast crowd, many of them Bangladeshi immigrants who held signs reading “Stop hate crimes” and “Muslim lives matter.” Akonjee, 55, and Uddin, 64, both fathers of three, had emigrated from Bangladesh.

Thousands gather to pray at caskets of Imam Maulama Akonjee, draped in green top, and Thara Uddin on Aug. 15 in New York. Both were shot in the head as they left the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid mosque in Queens. (Bebeto Matthews/AP)

Community leaders who spoke called on the police to add more security cameras to the corners of city mosques and bring more patrols to the neighborhood. But where de Blasio, City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer (D) and other officials alluded to divisive rhetoric, local Bengali leaders were more direct.

“This bigot acted upon his hatred, fueled and motivated by the constant rhetoric and xenophobic statements against minorities and Muslims made by the politicians and candidates seeking the highest office in the land,” said Anwar H. Khan, who read a list of demands for city officials on behalf of “the victims’ families and the communities.”

As the service concluded, the attendees spilled out onto the streets in a protest march that ended beneath the highway overpass where Akonjee and Uddin were killed.

“We want justice, we want justice,” they chanted, many holding their phones aloft to capture the moment. “Allahu akbar,” they also said, reciting the first declaration of Islam: God is great.