A former U.S. Army serviceman has been convicted of murder in the road rage shooting of a Muslim man that prompted Indiana to pass a law against hate crimes.
Dustin Passarelli was convicted of murder Wednesday evening in the February 2019 shooting of 32-year-old Mustafa Ayoubi following a confrontation on the northwest side of Indianapolis that began while both men were driving on Interstate 465, reported the Indianapolis Star.
The 37-year-old Passarelli claims Ayoubi threw something at his car or collided with it on the expressway, and the former soldier followed the Afghan immigrant to a neighborhood of townhomes, where his friends had been waiting for him to go play pool.
Witnesses heard the two men yelling inflammatory remarks back and forth -- with Passarelli shouting Islamophobic statements -- during the confrontation, and Ayoubi told Passarelli to get out of the car when he called the prophet Muhammad a pedophile.
Ayoubi made a fist as Passarelli shined a flashlight on his pistol on him, according to witnesses, and he then opened fire, striking Ayoubi twice near the shoulder and multiple times in the back.
Witness Usman Ashraf told police that Passarelli shined his flashlight where they were hiding "like a cop," and he testified that he believes Passarelli targeted his friend due to his ethnicity.
Passarelli admitted to the shooting as soon as police arrived and cooperated with investigators at the scene.
Prosecutors argued that Ayoubi’s car had no collision marks and his hands and arms did not have injuries to support claims that he had punched out a car window, and they argued that Passarelli had instigated the confrontation.
"He had a choice to leave," said deputy prosecutor Janna Skelton, "and he stayed."
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