INDIANAPOLIS — The sister of a Muslim man who was killed in an alleged road rage incident over the weekend says their family wants the suspect charged with a hate crime.
Dustin Passarelli is charged with murder in the February 17 shooting death of Mustafa Ayoubi.
Police say the situation started on I-465 when Passarelli said he thought Mustafa had thrown something at this vehicle, so he followed him home.
According to court documents filed with the Marion County Prosecutor's Office, Passarelli said the 24-year-old approached his vehicle, and the two got into a heated verbal argument.
Passarelli told police that Mustafa called him names like "dirty Jew" and punched his window so hard that the glass spider cracked. Passarelli said the action scared him, so he pulled out a gun and fired multiple shots. He said he stopped firing when he realized Mustafa was no longer a threat.
Witnesses told detectives they heard Passarelli yelling racial slurs and other offensive phrases at Ayoubi, including things like "You know what, go back to your f****** country," and "Muhammed was a pedophile." They said Mustafa was yelling back at him as well, calling him a racist and telling him "just chill" and "don't say anything bad about my God."
IMPD initially said the shooting was reported as a hate crime, but it was not being investigated as one because Indiana does not have a hate crime law.
Zahra Ayoubi, Mustafa's sister, spoke to media before Passarelli's first court appearance on Friday saying their family would be pushing for him to be charged with a hate crime.
"The reason why my family wants to push for this is because we don't want anybody else to lose a brother, an uncle, a nephew, a friend the way we did Mustafa," Nahra said. "We just ask that the authorities investigate this as a hate crime so we can get justice for Mustafa and also avoid this from happening again to anybody else."
This case comes as lawmakers in the Indiana Senate have just voted to pass a gutted version of a hate crimes bill that was presented earlier this legislative session. That bill will now go to the House for discussion and vote.
The amended version removes a list of traits — such as gender identity, sexual orientation and race — that judges could use for aggravated sentencing and adds words such as "including bias" to the part of Indiana code that states that a judge can add time to a person's sentence.
"We need to be united as a humankind before any religion comes into play. We need to be human, and we just need to understand each other and just love and care for each other before we take such an action," Zahra said. "As a community, I know it has happened before, but we just ask for more awareness in Indiana."
Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry issued the following statement regarding the charges.
“We have said on many occasions, too many occasions, in fact, that hate and crimes motivated by hate are real. Some in the legislature wish to push the dialogue into the hypothetical, but those of us who listen to our neighbors understand that this is an unfortunate reality in our state.
“While the disturbing allegations underlying the charge, in this case, remain to be proven at trial, we are obviously unable to charge this alleged act as a hate crime. The death of Mr. Ayoubi has been charged as a Murder, which we will vigorously prosecute to seek justice for Mr. Ayoubi, for his family and loved ones, and for all members of the Hoosier Muslim community who have been impacted by this tragedy.”
You can watch Zahra's full press conference below.
