The suspect in a murder in a mosque in Central Florida Thursday morning is in custody after a shootout with deputies in South Florida while driving the victim's vehicle. Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma says the 59 year old victim was a maintenance worker at the Husseini Islamic Center in Sanford.
The sheriff says he was training the alleged suspect to replace him so he could travel to Iraq where his father recently died when the two men apparently got into a fight.
"There's foldable chairs that are all over the place," Sheriff Lemma said. "There is blood that is dripped thoughout the area and there's a shovel that has blood on it."
Sheriff Lemma says they believe the shovel is the murder weapon. The sheriff says the suspect then took off in the victim's vehicle and ran into deputies in a Sam's Club parking lot in Indian River County more than 100 miles to the south.
"Some type of altercation occurs when the suspect gets out of the vehicle. He has been shot at least several times. He is still alive."
The suspect was transported to the hospital. Sheriff Lemma says he is originally from Egypt but has lived most of his life in the United States. Lemma says the mosque was not targeted and there was no threat to the larger community.
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