WOODLAND PARK, N.J. — Expressions of condolence from citizens, community leaders, officials, and clergy echoed across New Jersey after the beloved imam of Masjid Muhammad-Newark was fatally shot on Wednesday.

Many decried Hassan Sharif as a victim of gun violence that he had fought so hard to prevent. Sharif left the mosque after morning prayers at around 6:15 a.m. and was approached in the parking lot, where he was shot twice. He died hours later at University Hospital.

Police are still searching for the suspect and investigating the motive behind the attack.

 "We want justice on this corner because he fought for justice on this corner," Newark Councilman Patrick Council said at an interfaith assembly outside the mosque Wednesday evening. "We want righteousness on this corner because he wanted righteousness on this corner. We want oppression to end on this corner because he wanted oppression the end on his corner. And we want the person that committed this time to turn himself in right now."

Sharif was active in rallies and actions against violence. He worked with young people to provide support through one-on-one interactions, community events, and at an afterschool program at the mosque with mentoring and homework help, said Jimmy Small, president of the Muslim League of Voters of New Jersey.

"Imam Hassan Sharif was younger, so could relate to them on that basis," Small said. "He made sure he worked with the community, that’s how he could reach them. A lot of young people passed the masjid and got a free lunch. He was going out and talking to the youth about gun violence and how dangerous it was."

Sharif also provided space at the mosque for the Muslim League of Voters of NJ to serve hot meals to people in the community and host events to promote voting and U.S. Census participation. He had also recently hosted a dinner for senior citizens, Small said.

Keeping the city safe

The mosque was a safe house in Newark’s Safe Surrender Program for people with non-violent arrest warrants to turn themselves in and have their cases resolved quickly without jail time, said Newark Public Safety Director Fritz Frage. The imam supported efforts to keep the city safe and his death was a deep loss, Frage added.

Sharif, a member of the Newark Interfaith Alliance, worked as an officer for the Transportation Security Administration. He was a husband, father, and a former boxer, said Imam Wahy-ud Deen Shareef, convener of the Council of Imams in New Jersey.

Shareef knew the imam personally. "When he got elected, he and I had a discussion about the roles and responsibilities of imams," said Sareef. "I gave him a history of the masjid he was imam of, where I embraced Islam many years ago."

Support also came from leaders of other faiths, including Cardinal Joseph Tobin, archbishop of Newark. "I join with the people of Newark and surrounding communities deeply distressed by the tragic loss of Imam Hassan Sharif of Masjid Muhammed Mosque," Tobin said in a statement.

Funeral arrangements were pending Thursday afternoon. In a video shared online, a mosque representative asked people to say prayers for the imam and his family.

A surge in Islamophobic incidents

The shooting comes amid concerns over attacks against Muslim Americans since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October. In early December, CAIR said the group received 2,171 complaints of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate over the last two months – a 172% increase over the same period in the previous year.

Law enforcement officials in New Jersey vowed to increase patrols at mosques and synagogues following the start of the war. New Jersey has more than 320,000 Muslim American residents, New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin said in a post on X Wednesday, which commemorated Muslim Heritage Month.

Officials at the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, which is investigating the case, said the killing did not appear to be a bias crime or act of domestic terrorism. Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura said the Essex County Crime Stoppers Program is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible. Anyone with information is asked to call (973) 621-4111.

Imam had faced gun violence before

The shooting was not Sharif’s first encounter with gun violence.

In August, a man put a gun to his head as he exited his car to enter the mosque one morning, Sharif wrote in a Facebook post at the time. Sharif managed to wrestle the gun away from the man, who fled and was not caught.

In his post, he expressed compassion for the person who pulled a gun on him. He hoped the man would see God's mercy and turn his life around because "maybe not with me, whomever he does it to again, he may not make it through," he posted.

City government, interfaith leaders and citizens have much work to do to help turn people away from crime, Sharif wrote, adding that "I will die trying to see our people change in this world."

Contributing: Christopher Cann, Jeanine Santucci, and Minnah Arshad, USA TODAY