The fugitive suspected of the hate-crime slaying of two men he met at a Seattle gay club has been caught in New Jersey.
West Orange police tracked Ali Muhammed Brown to the 200 block of Mount Pleasant Ave. on Friday afternoon and took him into custody on warrant charges, according to the Star-Ledger newspaper.
The 29-year-old homeless man is expected to be extradited back to Washington state where he faces two counts of aggravated murder for allegedly shooting Dwone Anderson-Young, 23, and Ahmed Said, 27, execution-style on June 1. Their bodies were found in the street outside the home of one of the victims only minutes after leaving a bar together.
The motive behind their violent death, described by prosecutors as “extremely violent, senseless and seemingly unprovoked,” is not clear, but detectives are looking at the killings as a possible hate crime because Anderson-Young and Said were gay. It’s believed Brown met Said on a social-networking app such as Jack’d or Grindr to meet other gay men.
A conviction for aggravated murder can mean life in prison without parole or the death penalty, but King County prosecutors will not consider the death penalty until he’s extradited back to Seattle, according to the Seattle Times.