An Iraqi man who tried to flee to Britain from the United States after allegedly running down his daughter for being "too Westernised" faces a possible murder charge after she died from her injuries.

Arizona police said that Faleh Hassan Almaleki ran down Noor Faleh Almaleki, 20, and her boyfriend's mother with his Jeep as the women crossed a car park in the Phoenix suburb of Peoria on October 20.

Noor died yesterday, having failed to recover consciousness after the attack. The other woman, Amal Khalaf, was also seriously injured but is expected to survive.

Local newspapers reported that Mr Almaleki brought his family to live in Peoria in the mid-1990s. He became infuriated when his daughter married a man in Iraq but returned to Arizona to live with her boyfriend.

Police said that Mr Almaleki, 48, fled the US after the attack, crossing the Mexican border and leaving his car at the town of Nogales. He then took a flight from Mexico City to London, arriving at Gatwick Airport on October 25.

Interviewed on arrival, Mr Almaleki told UK Border Agency officers that he was planning to spend a week visiting cousins in Glasgow, but he was denied entry because he had only $400 (£245) cash with him and his nominated sponsor in the UK was unemployed.

Officers also discovered on questioning Mr Almaleki that he lived in Arizona with his wife and seven children but when they tried to organise his return to the US they were told that he was wanted for assault over the attack on his daughter.

He was finally deported last Thursday and was taken to jail in Maricopa County, Arizona, to be held on charges of aggravated assault – charges that will now be upgraded.

"By his own admission, this was an intentional act and the reason was that his daughter had brought shame on him and his family," Stephanie Low, a Maricopa County prosecutor, told a court at the weekend. "This was an attempt at an honour killing."

Bail has been set at $5 million.

Times Recommends

• 'New York has lost its edge'
• Copenhagen will fail – and quite right too
• More than 17,000 new underwater species found