INDIANAPOLIS — The friends of a man shot and killed in a road rage incident on the west side of Indianapolis say it was a hate crime.
32-year-old Mutsafa Ayoubi was fatally shot by 33-year-old Dustin Passarelli late Saturday night. Police say the incident started on I-465 and carried over into the Lakeside Crossing at Eagle Creek apartments.
Passarelli pulled up to the apartment building where Mustafa was planning to meet up with hi friends to shoot some pool. Usman Ashraf said Passarelli was shouting anti-Islamic slurs at them and was telling them to “get out of our country, you are foreigners.”
“You could feel the hate inside of him,” said Ashraf. “He shine a laser in Mustafa’s face. He (Mustafa) turned around, he started running and, instead of shooting him once or twice, he (Passarelli) emptied the whole clip on his back.”
Ashraf said as Mustafa was lying on the ground, Passarelli was out of his car in the cul-de-sac, gun in one hand, flashlight in the other.
“It was as if he was looking to kill all of us.” Ashraf continued. “We didn’t run; we started crawling because he was just looking for us.”
Police got there soon after. Ayoubi’s friends said saw their friend on the ground and a pastor performing CPR. He was pronounced dead by EMT’s when they got there.
The shooting happened just a few days before state lawmakers passed a hate crime bill out of a Senate committee on Monday. It isn’t clear if the case is officially being investigated as a hate crime.
After this incident, Ayoubi’s friends hope to see the bill become law, adding the law could act as a deterrent for some people and properly punish those whose crimes qualify.
(PHOTO: WISH-TV)
