LOS ANGELES : Worker Shot to Death Outside Muslim Temple

A 51-year-old contractor working on a Muslim temple in South-Central Los Angeles was fatally shot Friday afternoon when he was hit by a stray bullet from a gunfight between two passing cars, police said.

Rasheed Shakoor, a member of the Masjid Bilal Temple on Central Avenue near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, was building a fence around the temple when the cars raced past at about 3:50 p.m., the occupants firing at each other, Los Angeles Police Lt. Victor Ramirez said.

“He was just standing in the wrong place at the wrong time and as in so many drive-by shootings, the innocent bystander got killed. It’s a real tragedy,” Ramirez said.

Police were still seeking the occupants of the cars, he said.

“He was just a poor man trying to make a living for his family when he got in the way of that drive-by shooting,” said Fard Abdullah, a member of the temple.