US officials offer $12K reward in mosque shooting case

One month after a Coachella mosque was hit by gunfire, officials are offering a five-figure reward for any information leading to an arrest in the shooting, which is being investigated as a possible hate crime.

A reward up to $12,000 is being offered to anyone with information leading to an arrest in the shooting at a Coachella mosque, which is being investigated as a possible hate crime.

At 5 a.m. on Nov. 4, someone fired several rounds from a firearm striking the mosque and a vehicle parked in front of the place of worship, Captain Andrew Shouse from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said at a press conference Friday.

Shouse was joined by law enforcement officers, representatives of diverse faith-based organizations, local elected officials and U.S. Congressman Raul Ruiz, who represents the desert.

“We stand here today united,” Shouse said. “Our message is that violence like this is unacceptable in a civil society. We’re calling on the community to help us solve this crime today.”

The Islamic Society of the Coachella Valley is contributing $10,000 and the city of Choachella $2,000 for the reward, which Crime Stoppers of the Coachella Valley is helping facilitate.

“We would like to bring closure to this matter very soon,” said Raymundo Nour, president of the Islamic Society.

“This incident has greatly impacted our community - our children, our families,” Nour said. “We know, however, that incidents of this magnitude are an exception and that most residents in the Coachella Valley have always lived in harmony and peace.”

Increased security has been in place at the mosque since the shooting.

Ruiz said acts of violence such as this are not acts of violence against any one community, but the whole community.

“I stand here today in solidarity with my brothers of faith, who stand against this act of violence, this act of terrorism, this act of hatred,” said Rev. Scott Andrews of Shepherd of the Valley United Methodist Church in Indio. “With every fiber of my being I stand against what happened on Nov. 4.”

Ruiz, Andrews and Wilson called on anyone with information about the shooting to step forward.

“We have had a center, a home of worship, that has been desecrated,” said Rev. Guy Wilson from Our Lady of Soledad. “We look at it more than a crime. We look at it as a sin, a most grievous sin.”