Posted on 03/04/2006 5:33:44 AM PST by pabianice
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- The FBI has joined the investigation of a recent college graduate who faces attempted murder charges for allegedly injuring bystanders after driving a sport utility vehicle through a popular campus gathering spot.
No one was seriously hurt in the incident at the University of North Carolina on Friday.
The FBI joined the case because 22-year-old Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, a native of Iran, "allegedly made statements that he acted to avenge the American treatment of Muslims," said agent Richard Kolko, an FBI spokesman in Washington. "The ongoing investigation will work to confirm this."
Taheri-azar, who graduated in December after studying psychology and philosophy, was in the custody of campus police. They intended to charge him with attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, said police Capt. George Hare.
Taheri-azar called police to surrender and then awaited officers on a street two miles from campus, authorities said.
Local investigators declined to discuss a motive.
The incident happened just before noon near the center of campus in an area known as The Pit, a sunken, brick-paved area surrounded by two libraries, a dining hall and the student union.
"I see everyone kind of part because there's a car coming through, and the next thing I know, I'm on his windshield," sophomore Jeff Hoffman, his arm in a bandage, told The Daily Tar Heel, the campus newspaper.
The Pit is a center of campus activities, with students perched along walkways and steps. Friday's noontime crowd included candidates for Black Student Movement elections.
"He slowly came in, and I thought he was going to stop or something," sophomore Scott Wilson, a candidate, told the newspaper. "But then he sped right through."
Five students and a visiting scholar were treated for minor injuries and released from UNC Hospitals, the university said in a statement. Three other people declined treatment at the scene, police said.
A bomb squad searched Taheri-azar's apartment in nearby Carrboro and declared the building safe. Taheri-azar encouraged authorities to check the apartment after he was arrested.
"He said it almost in a baiting type of way," Carrboro police spokesman Capt. Joel Booker said.
Investigators declined to say what they found in the apartment and continued searching it Friday night for other evidence, Booker said.
This undated photo provided Friday, March 3, 2006, by the University of North Carolina shows Mohammed Reza Taheriazar, a December 2006 UNC-Chapel Hill graduate. Taheriazar was taken into custody as the suspected driver of a sport utility vehicle that plowed into a group of people outside a University of North Carolina classroom building Friday, injuring six before speeding away. (AP Photo/University of North Carolina)
It's a vast world-wide conspiracy.
Another reason to hand over our ports...
He can't be a 'recent college graduate' with a graduation date of 'December 2006. Someone got their dates mixed up.
Another follower of the Pedophile moHAMmadd (pbuh-pigshit be upon him). The 2nd amendment is our only defense against the muzzies as our government surely isn't.
Sheesh, I try to be positive, but stuff like that makes me wonder if Western Civ is doomed.
A half-witted, ineffective attack on people who are on his side in the War Against Civilization. What a loser!
I bet the French citizens never thought they'd see German soldiers and Nazi flags hoisted in Paris either.
IMO, if Western Judea-Christian civilization is to survive, Iran and North Korea must be destroyed.
Afterwards, Sharia law and wahhabism should be declared internationally illegal.
Finally, the world must demand that Islam vote a mullah to speak for ALL muslims...as the pope speaks for all catholics.
Until that happens, many hundreds of thousands of US citizens' lives are at risk.
Now the Muslim world has a new hero...Be on the look out for his mug to be on signs when the muzzies riot ....
The religion of pieces strikes again.
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The FBI report will clear things up...surely the SUV was made by a disgruntled white militia member...time to move on.
Those SUV's sure have a mind of their own.
Uh...
"allegedly made statements that he acted to avenge the American treatment of Muslims," said agent Richard Kolko, an FBI spokesman in Washington. "The ongoing investigation will work to confirm this."
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The campus newspaper recently printed their own Mohammed cartoon and the Muslim Student Association protested. Even though the driver didn't belong to that group, he may have been angered by the incident:
http://polipundit.com/index.php?p=12374
Thanks Al Gore! Your lovely speech is bearing fruit already!
By the time of the trial he'll have the proper beanie, nightshirt, and goofy-ass beard.
Hey, he looks like a WHITE GUY; therefore it must be a HATE CRIME!
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It's those diabolical SUV's again. Never mind that the guy who did this is named Mohammed, and that the campus newspaper had recently run, you know, a cartoon. Nope... an SUV did it.
