Man shot and killed outside Upper Darby mosque during carjacking

A 65-year-old man was shot and killed in the parking lot of an Upper Darby mosque Sunday night.

Mohammad Rahman, who worked as a correctional officer in Philadelphia, was found shot in the parking lot of the Masjid Al Madinah Upper Darby Islamic Center at South 69th and Walnut Streets when police arrived just after 7:45 p.m., according to Upper Darby Police Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt.

Bernhardt said the suspect — who had not been identified as of Monday — shot the victim during an attempted carjacking.

“We do not believe and have nothing to suggest this is in any way a hate crime, or motivated by bias or based on the victim’s membership to the mosque,” he said. “We believe this was a random act of violence.”

Blanche Carney, commissioner of the Philadelphia Department of Prisons, said in a statement: “The entirety of the PDP family is devastated over this unspeakable act of violence that has left one of our own dead and taken him from his family and friends.”

Carney added: “The PDP extends its support to all the officers and those who worked closely with Correctional Officer Rahman and came to know and care for him. We will continue to keep his family in our thoughts and prayers.”

Rahman, who started working for the city in late 2021, was assigned to the Riverside Correctional Facility and the Detention Center.

Bernhardt, at a news briefing Monday afternoon, called the suspect a “coward” who could have just taken the vehicle but “he chose to take a life.”

Around 150 people were gathered inside the mosque for the fifth and final prayer of the day Sunday night when the shooting occurred.

» READ MORE: A South Philadelphia mosque was vandalized last week. Its leader says he’s willing to sit down with the culprit.

“I can’t put in words the feeling and the trauma that I’m going through right now after hearing that this could have happened,” Ahmad Ibrahim, a friend of the 65-year-old victim, told 6ABC. He believed the victim was coming into the mosque to pray at the time of the shooting.

Police say they later recovered the car connected to the shooting in West Philadelphia at Webster and South Cecil Streets as well as a phone discarded in a storm drain nearby. They are reviewing surveillance footage from the mosque to help identify the suspect.

The Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights advocacy, is calling for a “thorough investigation” into the carjacking and encouraging mosques across Pennsylvania to apply for grants that could improve security measures.

“The Muslim community of the Philadelphia region has been going through an atmosphere of fear and anxiety due to recent dehumanization of Muslims. ... We send our prayers to the families of our community members and to Masjid Al-Madinah, a peaceful, vibrant and growing community center,” said Ahmet Tekelioglu, the executive director of CAIR-Philly, in a statement. “Our community needs a swift and clear understanding of the motives.”

While police do not believe the shooting and carjacking to be part of a hate crime, rising tensions surrounding the unfolding Israel-Hamas war have led to upticks in Islamophobia and antisemitism. Earlier this month, South Philly’s United Muslim Islamic Center was vandalized with anti-Muslim messages after waves of doxxing and school altercations spread across the region.

“It’s a senseless act that took place here,” Bernhardt told reporters. “Nobody should lose their life.”

Staff writer Robert Moran contributed to this article.