Texas manhunt on for the Egyptian father of slain girls
Washington Times Texas authorities continued a manhunt today for an Egyptian-born taxi driver accused of murdering his teenage daughters.
Yaser Abdel Said, 50, was wanted on a warrant for capital murder after police say he shot the girls Tuesday and left them to die in his taxi, which was found parked in front a hotel in Las Colinas, a suburb north of Dallas. Police said Mr. Said should be considered armed and dangerous.
Friends of Amina Yaser Said, 18, and Sarah Yaser Said, 17, described the girls to the Dallas Morning News as "extremely smart — like geniuses," saying the slain sisters had been enrolled in advanced placement classes and were active in soccer and tennis at suburban Lewisville High School.
While police refused to discuss a possible motive for the crimes, family and friends told reporters that the girls' Westernized lifestyle caused conflict with their Muslim father, who immigrated from Egypt in the 1980s.
"He was really strict about guy relationships and talking to guys, as well as the things she wears," Kathleen Wong, a friend of the girls, told KTVT-TV, the Dallas CBS affiliate.
Two boys who said they had been dating the sisters told KXAS-TV in Dallas that Mr. Said was upset that his daughters were involved with non-Muslims.
"She just wanted a normal life, like any American girl wanted," one of the boys told the NBC affiliate station, adding that Sarah "was always kind, gentle, always cheerful, always had a smile on her face."
The boyfriends said yesterday they feared for their safety because Mr. Said was still at large. "Obviously he already showed that he is a dangerous man," one told the KXAS station.
Another Dallas station, Fox affiliate KDFW-TV, reported that two members of the Said family said "Sarah and Amina dressed in Western clothes and listened to pop music.
They described Said as angry with his daughters for not acting like proper Muslim girls.”Students at Lewisville High today wore pink — the Said girls' favorite color — and organized a 6 p.m. candelight vigil in their memory