Posted on 07/01/2009 11:35:05 AM PDT by DCBryan1
Man charged in GI killing declines to change name
BY JOHN LYNCH ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
The Muslim convert who is charged with killing one U.S. Army soldier and wounding a second outside a Little Rock recruiting station made a brief appearance in Pulaski County Circuit court on Tuesday to resolve his request to change his name.
Prosecutors have yet to file a criminal case against Abdul-Hakim Mujahid Muhammad over the June 1 shooting that killed Pvt. William Long, 23, of Conway and wounded Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville. Little Rock police have charged the 23-year-old Tennessee native with capital murder and 16 counts of committing a terroristic act. They have 60 days from his arrest to file a case in circuit court.
Muhammad, who was born Carlos Leon Bledsoe, was arrested within 15 minutes of the shooting outside the Army-Navy Career Center in the Ashley Square shopping center at 9112 N. Rodney Parham Road.
Five weeks before the shootings, Muhammad sought a court order to drop Muhammad and restore his birth surname, Bledsoe. Court records show he filed two petitions almost 1 1 /2 hours apart on April 23, each citing unspecified “religious reasons” as motivating his desire to return to Bledsoe. The first filing is a form Muhammad filled out by hand. The second was a form in which the responses were mostly typed. His address and phone number are handwritten on both forms, and Muhammad signed only the second.
Tuesday, asked by reporters for a comment as he entered Judge Marion Humphrey’s courtroom, Muhammad mumbled something about Allah, which is Arabic for God.
Awaiting the judge’s entrance, Muhammad sat straight up on a wooden bench, eyes fixed ahead. Bailiff Josh Withers twice had to order Muhammad to his feet when the judge entered the courtroom. Muhammad barely stood up before slumping back to the bench.
He moved to the podium to address Humphrey, who told Muhammad that he didn’t have legal representation at the hearing because he’d filed the name-change petition on his own. Without addressing the charges against Muhammad, the judge told him he usually handles name changes in his office, but was making an exception for Muhammad by holding a hearing.
“Because of other things going on, we wanted to do this on the record,” Humphrey said.
Questioned by the judge about his interest in changing his name, Muhammad muttered a negative response. He nodded as Humphrey said he’d mark the docket that Muhammad had voluntarily withdrawn the request.
Questioned again by reporters as he was led away about why he’d wanted to change his name, Muhammad responded, “It doesn’t matter.”
Muhammad, who appeared in court Tuesday dressed in a blue jail uniform and shackled at his hands and feet, spoke at most a handful of words barely louder than a whisper during the two-minute court proceeding. His quiet presence was a sharp contrast to the two recorded interviews Muhammad gave The Associated Press in the days after his last public appearance — a June 8 court appearance in which a Little Rock district judge issued a gag order at the request of prosecutors.
Calling the AP from jail, Muhammad claimed Long’s death wasn’t a crime and that the shooting was “for the sake of God, for the sake of Allah, the Lord of all the world, and also a retaliation on U.S. military.”
“I do feel I’m not guilty. I don’t think it was murder, because murder is when a person kills another person without justified reason, and what I did was Islamic justified and also justified by common sense,” Muhammad told the news agency. “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.”
Muhammad - “I do feel I’m not guilty. I don’t think it was murder, because murder is when a person kills another person without justified reason, and what I did was Islamic justified and also justified by common sense,” Muhammad told the news agency. “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.”
Nuff said....Islam kills....Obama chills.
This sad excuse for a human being hadn’t planned on the judge doing this publicly.
He obviously has a case of vitiligo.
As such, the Constitution requires that while in custody, he be provided (at no charge) with some porcelain white pancake makeup, sungalsses, a mask, some courtroom pyjamas, a chimp, and a boy.
Once he is released, the Constition mandates that he continue to receive these things free of charge, along with a free deluxe apartment in the sky, a free grocery debit card (formerly known as food stamps), and free medicaid.
leon abdul hakim countenance has the same alert, intense look of a lot of those other islamic geniuses. Real sharp looking guy.
Wonder when one of them will plead innocent by reason of being muslim.
Congress has a moment of silence for a child molester, but doesn’t have one for these soldiers...
Bizarro world.
You left out the free big screen HDTV and premium cable service.
“Wonder when one of them will plead innocent by reason of being muslim.”
That’s essentially what he has done. Read his statement from the end of the article. He believes that the killing was justified because he thinks he had reasons to kill, including that his religion tells him he should.
Try this traitor for treason.
He’s an Islamic supremacist. The rhetoric is that it is okay to kill the kufir. They are not as protected under Sharia law as muslims.
Welcome to the new apartheid. The one Jimmy Carter supports.
He’s as proud as punch of what he did in the name of his pagan moon god, and now we’re going to bend over backwards to make every possible allowance for his many and various “rights”, spending millions of taxpayer dollars in the process.
It would be so much easier, and arguably more just, to take him out back and shoot him.
and high speed internet connection with a laptop.
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