Chancey Bush/The Albuquerque Journal via AP
Muhammad Afzaal Hussain’s dreams were starting to come true in New Mexico.
The 27-year-old rising political star, who’d left Pakistan for America in 2017, was working on getting his green card and preparing to move into a beautiful ranch home surrounded by apple trees. For about a year, Afzaal had worked for the city of Española’s planning department, which helped arrange this new housing for him, so he wouldn’t need to continue commuting from his Albuquerque apartment. The drive was 90 minutes each way.
But on the night of Monday, Aug. 1, Afzaal was gunned down outside his apartment blocks from the University of New Mexico, where he attended graduate school and made friends easily. His older brother, Imtiaz, says he’d stepped out to take a phone call before someone ambushed him with bullets.