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Reported by: KARK 4 News Tuesday, Jun 2, 2009 @08:40am CDT The man charged in Monday's shootings outside a Little Rock military recruiting center has been ordered held without bond after a Tuesday morning appearance in Little Rock District Court.
Meanwhile, police reports released in court Tuesday shed some light on what happened on Monday. Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, 23, also known as Carlos Bledsoe, is charged with capital murder and 16 counts of terroristic acts. According to the police reports, Muhammad admitted to shooting the victims, and then revealed how and why. He told police that he put three weapons, including an assault rifle, into his SUV and then drove around until he saw the Recruiting Station and the two soldiers smoking outside the building. He then pulled into the parking lot in front of the station, stopped his vehicle, and began shooting at the soldiers standing outside, firing several rounds from an SKS assault rifle with the intent of killing them. Muhammad also told officers that he would have killed more soldiers if they had been on the parking lot. Muhammad also told police he was a practicing Muslim, and that he was mad at the U.S. military because of what they had done to Muslims in the past. At the time of the shooting there were about 15 Army and civilian personnel inside the Recruiting Station on Rodney Parham Road besides the two soldiers who were shot. Private William Long, 23, of Conway, died from his injuries as he arrived at the hospital. Private Second Class Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville, was also shot, and was rushed into surgery after arriving at the hospital. Chief Thomas says he is expected to recover. "We have no indication that the suspect did anything but 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. According to court documents, Muhammad told detectives he recently viewed a video pertaining to subversive activities which spurred him to commit this act. Police took several rounds of ammunition and assault rifle from his vehicle. They took a safe and a paper with Arabic writing from his apartment "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. According to Captain Feehan, Long enlisted January 9 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 until 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, along with 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. At the scene minutes after the shootings happened, Little Rock Police Spokesman Lt. Terry Hastings said the gunshots were fired from a black SUV that sped off. Police say 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 Mara Lynn Road 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. Click here to view additional photos from the shooting and vehicle search scenes. |
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