{"id":1809,"date":"2022-03-25T11:30:54","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T11:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linksus.net\/maintenance-worker-at-mosque-likely-killed-with-shovel-seminole-sheriff-says-wkmg-news-6-clickorlando\/"},"modified":"2022-03-25T11:30:54","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T11:30:54","slug":"maintenance-worker-at-mosque-likely-killed-with-shovel-seminole-sheriff-says-wkmg-news-6-clickorlando","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/2022\/03\/25\/maintenance-worker-at-mosque-likely-killed-with-shovel-seminole-sheriff-says-wkmg-news-6-clickorlando\/","title":{"rendered":"Maintenance worker at mosque likely killed with shovel, Seminole sheriff says – WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 14-year-old boy died in a fall from the Orlando Free Fall at ICON Park, officials say.
BREAKING NEWS
Thomas Mates<\/a><\/span>, Digital storyteller
Published:\u00a0Thomas Mates<\/a><\/span>, Digital storyteller
SANFORD, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 A maintenance worker at Husseini Islamic Center near Sanford was killed, possibly with a shovel, according to Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma.
Investigators said the body of the 59-year-old man was found at the center, at 5211 Hester Ave., around 8:45 a.m. Thursday. Lemma said the suspect, later identified as 38-year-old Ahmed Raslan, was found by deputies in Indian River County where he was shot three times but is still alive.
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Lemma said the maintenance worker is a refugee from Iraq who was getting ready to return home following the death of his father.
\u201cHe was the heart and soul of this mosque,\u201d said Mahmood Dhalla, president of the Husseini Islamic Center.
Originally the sheriff\u2019s office said Raslan, a man born in Egypt who had lived in the U.S. most of his life, was training to replace the victim. Deputies said they no longer believe that is the case.
The sheriff\u2019s office now said the Raslan was possibly deranged and believed he was told to come to the mosque by Julius Caesar. They said the suspect has said he was told to defend Julius Caesar\u2019s home, and he was given the address of the mosque.
\u201cHe felt this was his home, and the property on the inside was Caesar\u2019s property,\u201d Lemma said. \u201cAnd his intent was to defend that, even at the cost of murder. It looks like our victim in this case, in a very heroic effort, was the first person that actually walked into the establishment at the time.\u201d
Raslan\u2019s social media posts, which were discussed at Thursday\u2019s news briefing, can be found in full below.
Ahmed Raslan Facebook Post<\/a> by Sam Dunne<\/a> on Scribd
Ahmed Raslan Facebook Post 2<\/a> by Sam Dunne<\/a> on Scribd
The victim tried to defend the mosque, according to the sheriff.
\u201cHe was a gentlemen and an amazing guy and he\u2019s going to be missed. It\u2019s such a tragic incident,\u201d Dhalla said. \u201cHe\u2019s always said \u2018I would protect this place with my life\u2019 and I think he did. So we\u2019re very grateful.\u201d
Lemma said a shovel found on the scene is likely the murder weapon. Deputies believe the attacker dragged the victim outside and attempted to hose down the body.
\u201cJust before deputies walked through the establishment, another woman pulled in. As she was pulling in, her report was \u2014 she was familiar with the maintenance man, our victim. She saw his car at the gate and somebody was out of the gate, opening the gate that was not him. So our suspect was driving the victim\u2019s car,\u201d Lemma said.
Deputies said the suspect was seen leaving the scene in the victim\u2019s 2006 blue Chrysler Town & Country minivan.
Several hours later, the Indian River Sheriff\u2019s Office spotted the van in the parking lot of a Sam\u2019s Club.
Body camera video released by the sheriff\u2019s office shows deputies attempted to conduct a traffic stop and when the man got out of the vehicle, he reached into his pocket and gestured with his fingers like he had a weapon, according to the sheriff there.
Lemma added that no deputies were hurt.
The sheriff said if the man survives, he could face a first-degree murder charge.
The identity of the victim has not been released.
Copyright 2022 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.
Deputies are investigating after a man turned up at a hospital in Seminole County, shot multiple times, according to the sheriff’s office.
A man who was walking a moped along Orange Blossom Trail was hit and killed by a trailer in Seminole County, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
Thomas Mates is a digital storyteller for News 6 and ClickOrlando.com. He also produces the podcast Florida Foodie. Thomas is originally from Northeastern Pennsylvania and worked in Portland, Oregon before moving to Central Florida in August 2018. He graduated from Temple University with a degree in Journalism in 2010.
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Copyright \u00a9 2022 ClickOrlando.com is managed by Graham Digital and pubished by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings.<\/p>\n

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A 14-year-old boy died in a fall from the Orlando Free Fall at ICON Park, officials say.BREAKING NEWSThomas Mates, Digital storytellerPublished:\u00a0March 24, 2022, 11:15 AMUpdated:\u00a0March 25, 2022, 12:38 AMThomas Mates, Digital storytellerSANFORD, Fla. \u2013 A maintenance worker at Husseini Islamic Center near Sanford was killed, possibly with a shovel, according to Seminole County Sheriff Dennis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":869,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1809"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/869"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}