Gunman Shoots 2 at Arkansas Military Recruitment Center

[David]

AP


CONWAY, Ark. – A clergyman has eulogized a 23-year-old Army private killed outside an Arkansas recruiting center as a "seeker" who needed to find himself.

About 200 mourners packed the Harlan Park Baptist Church in Conway on Monday for the funeral of William Long. Monday was the day he was supposed to deploy to South Korea.

Long was killed June 1 outside the Army-Navy Career Center in west Little Rock, where he had volunteered to tell others about his military experience.

A Muslim convert allegedly out to avenge mistreatment of Muslims pleaded not guilty to capital murder.

Pastor John Harrington described Long as sharp and gifted.

[David]

AP


LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A Muslim convert charged with fatally shooting an American soldier at a military recruiting center said Tuesday that he doesn't consider the killing a murder because U.S. military action in the Middle East made the killing justified.

"I do feel I'm not guilty," Abdulhakim Muhammad told The Associated Press in a collect call from the Pulaski County jail. "I don't think it was murder, because murder is when a person kills another person without justified reason."

Pvt. William Andrew Long, 23, of Conway had just completed basic training and was volunteering at the west Little Rock recruiting office before starting an assignment in South Korea. He was shot dead June 1 while smoking a cigarette outside the building, and a fellow soldier, Pvt. Quinton I. Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville was wounded.

"Yes, I did tell the police upon my arrest that this was an act of retaliation, and not a reaction on the soldiers personally," Muhammad said. He called it "a act, for the sake of God, for the sake of Allah, the Lord of all the world, and also a retaliation on U.S. military."

In the interview, Muhammad also disputed his lawyer's claim that he had been "radicalized" in a Yemeni prison and said fellow prisoners that some call terrorists were actually "very good Muslim brothers."

He also said he didn't specifically plan the shootings that morning.

"It's been on my mind for awhile. It wasn't nothing planned really. It was just the heat of the moment, you know," said Muhammad, who was arrested on a highway shortly after the attack.

Prosecutor Larry Jegley, who on Monday won a gag order in the case, declined to comment specifically on Muhammad's remarks.

"I asked for the gag order to protect Mr. Muhammad's right for a fair trial," Jegley said. "I've never had a situation like this with a gag order and I'm sure Mr. Muhammad's attorney will take care of it."

Muhammad, 23, said he wanted revenge for claims that American military personnel had desecrated copies of the Quran and killed or raped Muslims. "For this reason, no Muslim, male or female, sane or insane, little, big, small, old can accept or tolerate," he said.

He said the U.S. military would never treat Christians and their Scriptures in the same manner.

"U.S. soldiers are killing innocent Muslim men and women. We believe that we have to strike back. We believe in eye for an eye. We don't believe in turning the other cheek," he said.

Asked whether he considered the shootings at the recruiting center an act of war, Muhammad said "I didn't know the soldiers personally, but yes, it was an attack of retaliation. And I feel that other attacks, not by me or people I know, but definitely Muslims in this country and others elsewhere, are going to attack for doing those things they did," especially desecrating the Quran.

Last week, defense lawyer Jim Hensley said his client had been tortured and "radicalized" in a Yemeni prison after entering the country to teach English. He was held there for immigration violations, and Yemeni officials have denied mistreatment.

"Those claims ... are all lies," Muhammad said Tuesday. "That never happened in Yemen. The officials dealt with me in a gentle way."

Hensley said Tuesday that any information spread by any of the parties since Monday morning would violate the gag order and declined to say whether he would advise his client to remain silent pending a trial.

[SEATJERKER]

...

..."He also said he didn't specifically plan the shootings that morning".

...And They wonder why "we", The average American Joe, and Jane sees the muslim world as full blown, off the wall crazed, do anything to further doom, waste products of life,...

...It really is time to totally rearm America, yes with firearms, so that the Average Joe, and Jane can defend themselves against the scurge that has infiltrated our society. It has come down to criminals, and terrorists walking free among us choosing to open fire with more then likely, an illeagal one,...

...

[reconeil]

Hey,...you've certainly got me convinced.

Still and sorry for Us All since unfortunately Islam's best & most powerfull friend on earth and/or President Barack Hussein Obama II or Jr. doesn't think similarly,...which is even further
unfortunate since: "His Barackness" calls-ALL-The-Shots in America. NO ONE ELSE!

Plus, Barack much like a foolish Mullah Flanagan would have all believe that: "There are no such as Bad (Muslims)". Damn,...what a phoney Christian or Muslim Mole/Plant!

Neil

[QM3steve]

I like the idea of taking him out in the woods, strapping him to a tree in the coyote/black bear area. Dang... sounds like my back yard. A couple of days... the scavengers will finish him off.