Shooter of Army Recruiters was a Muslim

[InTheHearts0fGreenBirds]

Just after 5:00 this evening, Little Rock Police say Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, also known as Carlos Bledsoe, will be charged with capital murder and 15 counts of terroristic acts after a shooting at an Army/Navy recruitment center on Rodney Parham Road in Little Rock.

Little Rock Police Chief Stuart Thomas says Muhammad intentionally targeted military personnel.

23-year-old Private William Long, of Conway, died as a result of his injuries.

18-year-old Private Second Class Quinton Ezeagwula, of Jacksonville, was also shot. Chief Thomas says he is in stable condition and will recover.

Police say Muhammad opened fire because of his religious beliefs. He was a recent convert to Islam.

"We have no indication that the suspect did act alone and of his own accord, and it's our belief he acted with a specific intent to target military personnel and did so unilaterally and did so with intent today and today only," Thomas said.

Police say Muhammad had never met his victims.

"On behalf of the U.S. Army, our condolences go out to the families, especially the family of Private Long. Any loss of life is tragic," said Captain Matthew Feehan, commander of the recruiting center.

The military revealed information about what the victims were doing at the center. Lt. Col. Thomas F. Artis, Commander of the Oklahoma recruiting battalion, which has command over the Little Rock recruiting station, says the soldiers were enlisted men, not officers, and that they did not work as recruiters. Lt. Col. Artis says they were part of a recruiting program called "hometown recruiting assistance."

He says recruiters use these soldiers to tell their stories to talk to potential recruits, and that it is a volunteer position they do while they are visiting or based back in their home region." Lt. Col. Artis says he does not know who the suspect was, and says it's not clear if the man was in the military or not. The two men were in the HRAP program before they were to be deployed. Seven other recruiters were at the center at the time of the shooting. No one else was hurt.

According to Captain Feehan, Long enlisted January 9, 2009 and had completed basic and advanced initial training at Fort Benning in Georgia. He has a brother in the Army stationed at Fort Bliss in Texas. Feehan said Ezeagwula enlisted in October 2008 and had just completed basic and advanced training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri.

After the suspect's vehicle was stopped, the Little Rock Bomb Squad was called in over concern about some bags found inside. The scene was closed off and traffic along the I-30 entrance ramp from I-630 was backed up for some time. The vehicle was finally towed away just before one o'clock. No explosives were found in the vehicle, however police recovered three weapons, including the murder weapon, an SKS semi-automatic rifle. They also recovered a .22-caliber rifle and a pistol.

The shooting happened just after 10:15 at the Ashley Square Shopping Center at 9112 North Rodney Parham Road, not far from the Reservoir Road intersection.

Hastings says the gunshots were fired from a black SUV that sped off. Police say about ten to twelve rounds were fired.

Crime scene tape had a large area of the shopping center roped off, from an old Blockbuster video store a few stores down to a Honey Baked Ham store.

A witness to the shooting told KARK 4 they were sitting at a nearby traffic light when they heard the gunfire and saw a vehicle speed away from the scene. Another witness saw it all happen from an apartment complex across the street.

Around two o'clock Monday afternoon, police and bomb squad officers searched Muhammad's apartment off Napa Valley Drive in the Bristol Park complex.

The FBI and ATF assisted in the investigation. Police say Muhammad has only lived in the area for a few months and has no local criminal record. He has previously lived in Memphis and Nashville.

Tune in to KARK 4 News for the latest on the story.


Update: LR Shooting Suspect Tells How & Why He Shot Soldiers

[Rakan]

A 23-year-old man charged with killing one soldier and seriously wounding another in a shooting outside an Army recruiting office in Little Rock, Ark., was once detained in Yemen for possessing a fake Somali passport and other counterfeit documents, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.

The episode in Yemen prompted a preliminary inquiry by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other American law enforcement agencies into whether the man, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, had ties to extremist groups, the officials said. But that investigation was inconclusive, they said, leaving the bureau with insufficient evidence to wiretap his phone or put him under surveillance.

It is not clear when Mr. Muhammad, an American convert to Islam who was traveling on a valid United States passport, was detained in Yemen or why he would have been carrying counterfeit documents. His detention in Yemen was first reported Tuesday by ABC News.

Mr. Muhammad has told investigators that he acted alone, the Little Rock police said. But his travels to Yemen and possibly Somalia raise questions about whether he met with any of the militant Islamic groups that are active in both countries.

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/us...it.html?ref=us

[Abu Abdallah al-Bulghari]

May Allah reward him

[murdiyyah]

a a m e e n

[Rakan]

By JON GAMBRELL

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The man accused of killing an Army private outside an Arkansas recruiting center never suffered torture or beatings while jailed on an immigration violation in Yemen, an official with the country's embassy said Friday.

Embassy spokesman Mohammed Albasha denied claims by Abdulhakim Muhammad's lawyer that abuse radicalized the man into becoming a terrorist. Instead, Albasha said, the once-idealistic college student from Tennessee found his own way to religious anger after converting to Islam in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Muhammad's claims "are not credible because he is attempting to find any pretext to justify his violent actions, even those that are completely false," Albasha said in a statement to The Associated Press. "He was not subjected to torture that has driven him to become a terrorist against his own fellow American citizens. These allegations are absurd."

The 23-year-old Muhammad appeared briefly Friday in Little Rock District Court. Judge Alice Lightle formally appointed lawyer Jim Hensley, who raised the abuse claim on Thursday, to represent him.

Muhammad was silent during the hearing. He has pleaded not guilty to a capital murder charge in the death Monday of Pvt. William Long. Another soldier, Pvt. Quinton I. Ezeagwula, was wounded in the shooting. Hensley has said his client wants to hold a news conference with reporters or issue a statement to "explain himself."

Hensley had told the AP on Thursday that "hardened" Islamic terrorists inside the prison where Muhammad was held for four months indoctrinated him into their radical beliefs. He also said that while in prison he faced torture and beatings from jailers, prisoners or both that left him scarred.

Muhammad, born Carlos Bledsoe, traveled to Yemen in September 2007 and taught English in the port city of Aden with the British Council for about two months, Albasha said. Muhammad then traveled to San'a, the country's capital, and taught English classes while attending Arabic courses with a group known as The City Institute, the spokesman said.

In this photo taken Tuesday, June 2, 2009, Abdulhakim Muhammad, 23, waits in a Little Rock, Ark., courtroom where he was charged in the Monday, June 1, death of a military recruiter. Muhammad's lawyer on Thursday, June 4, 2009, said his client was tortured and radicalized in a Yemeni prison.

Police arrested Muhammad on Nov. 14 for overstaying his visa and living illegally in the Middle Eastern nation, Albasha said. He was deported Jan. 29 to the U.S.

A law enforcement official previously told the AP that Muhammad was arrested and jailed for using a Somali passport.

On Friday, Hensley acknowledged Muhammad had such a passport at the time of his arrest, but said it was only to remain in the country with his wife.

"Everybody there has a passport from somewhere else. Everybody overstays their visas," Hensley said. "That's where his life was. That's where his life was going to be."

Hensley said he wasn't surprised that Yemen denied the torture allegations.

The country, a lawless and impoverished nation on the tip of the Arabian peninsula, is the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden's family. It was the scene of one of al-Qaida's most dramatic pre-9/11 attacks, the 2000 suicide bombing of the destroyer USS Cole off the Aden coast that killed 17 American sailors.

Hensley also disputed supposed Internet search records seized on a computer at Muhammad's Little Rock apartment, saying other people had accessed the secondhand computer. An FBI-Homeland Security intelligence assessment document obtained by the AP after the shooting suggested Muhammad may have considered targeting other locations, including Jewish and Christian sites. The FBI said he "conducted Internet searches related to different locations in several U.S. cities" including Atlanta, Little Rock, Louisville, Ky., Memphis, Tenn., New York and Philadelphia. Material seized from Muhammad's truck and apartment this week included guns, ammunition and Molotov cocktails.

Pulaski County Prosecutor Larry Jegley sent a letter to Hensley on Friday telling the lawyer that he wanted to seek a gag order in the case. Jegley said that request likely would be filed before a district judge Monday.
Long is scheduled to be buried Monday at the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery.

source: The Associated Press: Yemen: Accused shooter not tortured in prison

[Abu Maryam PK]

What is MM's official stance on this?

[Rakan]

What is MM's official stance on this?

25 to Life.

[Only1Life2Live]

25 to Life.

May Allah relieve & make things easy for him Allahuma Ameen!