Ark. suspect says he is unaware of new attacks - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Ark. suspect says he is unaware of new attacks

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The Muslim convert accused of killing a soldier outside an Army recruiting center said Wednesday he is not aware of any similar attacks planned against the military on American soil.

Abdulhakim Muhammad told The Associated Press that FBI agents visited him in jail and asked if other attacks were planned. Muhammad said he told the agents that he wasn’t aware of any specific plans.

However, he warned of danger ahead.

“I don’t know anything that’s in the works,” Muhammad said in a collect telephone call from the jail. “We’re not going to turn the other cheek. It’s definitely not the end of it.”

Muhammad called AP to follow up on a Tuesday phone call that ended when a guard said it was time to return to his cell. Wednesday’s call also ended abruptly.

In a Tuesday interview with the AP, Muhammad, 23, said he didn’t consider the June 1 killing a murder because U.S. military action in the Middle East made the killing justified.

“I do feel I’m not guilty,” he said in another collect call. “I don’t think it was murder, because murder is when a person kills another person without justified reason.”

Pvt. William Andrew Long, 23, 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 while smoking a cigarette outside the building, and a fellow soldier, Pvt. Quinton I. Ezeagwula, 18, was wounded.

Muhammad was arrested on a state capital murder charge and could face the death penalty. FBI spokesman Steve Frazier said Tuesday a federal investigation continues and any information that’s gathered is being shared with local law enforcement. He declined to comment further.

An FBI-Homeland Security intelligence assessment document obtained by The Associated Press last week suggested the gunman may have considered targeting other locations, including Jewish and Christian sites in several eastern U.S. cities.

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Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell contributed to this report from Jacksonville, Arkansas, and Chuck Bartels contributed to this report from Little Rock.

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