A Man Followed a Driver Off an Indiana Freeway. Then, He Made Islamophobic Slurs and Shot Him to Death.

An Indiana man was convicted and sentenced to 55 years in prison for the fatal shooting of another man during a road rage incident in which he shouted Islamophobic slurs at the victim in 2019.

As Front Page Detectives previously reported, Dustin Passarelli, 37, followed 32-year-old Mustafa Ayoubi off the highway in Indianapolis and got into a verbal altercation.

According to witnesses, Passarelli made several Islamophobic remarks and was using hate speech before he fatally shot Ayoubi.

After the shooting, Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry said the killing couldn’t be tried as a hate crime in Indiana, but he would “vigorously prosecute” Passarelli to get justice for Ayoubi, his loved ones and the Indiana Muslim community.

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Passarelli was not charged with a hate crime, but six weeks after Ayoubi’s murder, Indiana lawmakers passed a hate crimes bill that included a provision allowing judges to impose longer sentences for crimes motivated by bias.

On May 17, Passarelli was convicted of murder after a three-day trial.