The gunman or gunmen fired as many as 18 bullets into his fence and home early Tuesday, wounding his wife, in eastern Mecklenburg County. The man who name is Abdul, said he hopes the gunman or gunmen didn’t target them because the family is Muslim.

“We don’t know if it was a random shooting” or the family was targeted because of their faith, the homeowner said outside his house in Shiny Meadow Lane. “We hope it’s not the second case.”

Abdul earlier told WBTV, the Observer’s news partner “Why our house in particular? Why aren’t the other houses shot at? Looks like we were targeted for one purpose or another, and it doesn’t sound like a random shooting. We are traumatized, all of us, and we are thinking who can be shooting at us? Is it for motive? We have no idea,” Abdul said.

Police won’t know if a hate crime was involved until they arrest someone in the case, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Capt. Chuck Henson said.

Shots struck the family’s rear security fence and back of the home about 1 a.m., police said.

One bullet went through a second-floor window, striking the woman in the thigh as she slept, the homeowner told news reporters and photographers.

The homeowner asked that he be identified only by his first name, Abdul.

He said his wife was moved to intensive care and will need surgery.

Henson said the homeowner told police that the family has always gotten along with their neighbors, attending cookouts and other functions.

PHOTO CAPTION

Students at Queens College in New York gather for a vigil, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015, in honor of three Muslim students killed recently near the University of North Carolina.

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