Tucson killing may be linked to D.C. sniper suspects, police say

The two people accused of killing a dozen people in and around Washington, D.C. may have killed a Tucson man in March, Tucson Police Chief Richard Miranda said this morning.

Tucson police received information from the Montgomery County Task Force last Friday from the FBI that John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo were in Tucson in mid-march 2002, visiting Muhammad's sister at her Southeast Side home, Miranda said.

The Task Force asked Tucson police to re-investigate an unsolved homicide that occurred while the pair were here, the death of Jerry R. Taylor, 60, Miranda said. Taylor was shot and killed while he practiced chipping at the Fred Enke Golf Course, in the 8200 block of East Irvington Road.

Miranda said the task force asked for authorities to look into that case because of similarities between it and the other shootings attributed to the snipers, including that Taylor was killed with a larger caliber rifle.

John Allen Muhammad, 41, and John Lee Malvo, 17, came to Tucson from Los Angeles on a bus, Miranda said, and were in the Tucson area from March 13 to March 16. There's also information they might have been in Southern Arizona as late as March 25, but Miranda could not say where.

No rifle shells or other ballistic evidence was found at the golf course the first time officers investigated, Miranda said, so they'll be back for the next few days searching the area again. They'll also have a second dog, on loan from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to help search, he said.

"Essentially we're starting from scratch," Miranda said. "This was all done before, but I feel it's necessary to go back and retrace our steps."

Police also will look at other cases that occurred during the time Muhammad and Malvo were here, but there were no other unsolved homicides.

Miranda would not say how many times Taylor was shot or where physically he was wounded, but did say, for the first time, that something was taken from him. However, he would not elaborate.

The connection could mean closure for a case that had stumped investigators, and Miranda said it didn't surprise him.

"In the back of my mind, I was wondering if this case had any association," he said. "When I was told, I have to say I really wasn't surprised. I'd been thinking about it for a while."

Miranda said the investigation could take a couple of weeks and depends on what information officers glean from interviews and investigation at the golf course.

How interesting...

The credit card in question belonged to a Greyhound bus driver in Flagstaff, Ariz., whose driver's license and credit cards were stolen March 25. The woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the cards were taken from a pouch behind her seat while she was driving a bus on the 337-mile route between Nogales, Ariz., and Flagstaff.

She did not realize the Visa card had been stolen until Bank of America's fraud control branch wrote her April 11, saying it had automatically closed the account after the Visa was used for a $12.01 gasoline purchase in Tacoma, Wash., that the bank believed to be fraudulent.

"That was the end of that, until last Sunday when I had the FBI calling me at Greyhound, saying that through this credit card they [had a link to] the people involved with the sniping," she said.
LINK

The route from Nogales to Flagstaff travels right through Tucson.

Here's two stories from a local tv station.

http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?s=%20%20710835

March 19, 2002

Golfer Murdered at Fred Enke Municipal Course

Following the grizzly discovery of a dead body at a South side golf course Tuesday, News 13 asked Tucson Police why they immediately tagged the death "suspicious," before calling it murder. "What information can you give us that suggests foul play?" News 13 asks Sgt. Marco Borboa. "The mere fact that someone's lying in the desert face down," he says.

That someone was a 61 year old golfer named Jerry Taylor, a face many people recognized here at the Fred Enke Golf Course, though few actually knew... Several witnesses say they saw Taylor practicing here alone Tuesday, one reason why fellow golfers were so startled once they heard the news. "I figured somebody just had a heart attack...but yeah, I'm surprised to hear it." Al Bradley practices his chip shots here almost every day. And he says it's possible Taylor may have been attacked without anybody knowing it. "You hear cheering all the time," Bradley says. "Somebody gets a good drive or gets a good put, you hear people yell quite often."

Police won't confirm how Taylor died...or why. All they're saying on record is that his death was no accident...and that someone or some group of people know why. "This is a confirmed homicide," Borboa says. "And we're continuing with it as a homicide." Meantime...those here at Fred Enke Golf Course are left wondering what happened? And what are the chances of it happening again?

"I was the golf pro for 7 years before this," says Mike Hayes of Tucson Parks and Rec. "The craziest thing we ever saw out here is when we saw a bobcat on the golf course, so." News 13 says, "We imagine it's probably pretty quiet out here most of the time?" To which Bradley responds, "Yeah, all friendly people--you never see anything as far as foul play out here."

Unfortunately, that is, until now... Tucson Police are asking for your help in this case. If you saw or heard anything strange Tuesday afternoon around the Fred Enke Golf Course, you're encouraged to call 911 or 88-Crime. You may remain anonymous.
____________________________________________
http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?s=%20%20737692

4/9/02
Tucson's Most Wanted: Golfer Murder Still A Mystery
By Krista Gold

In tonight's Tucson's Most Wanted report, there's new information in the murder of a Tucson golfer. Tucson Police now say 60 year old Jerry Taylor was robbed. But evidence left behind at the scene suggests robbery may not have been the actual motive for the crime.

On Tuesday, March 19th, just as he did everyday, Taylor was out practicing his favorite sport. He was a regular at the Fred Enke Golf Course on East Irvington.

But on the very course he loved, Taylor's life would come to a violent end.

Sgt. Mark Fuller says, "He was shooting balls on the green, they went over into the desert area, he took a ball retriever, a bag with a tube on it, and went into the desert to pick up the balls." Sgt. Fuller believes that's when Taylor encountered his killer.

To protect their investigation, police still won't say how Taylor was killed. His wallet was found nearby with nothing missing. Detectives say they have no suspects and no motive for the murder. Sgt. Fuller says, "We don't have any solid leads, we're pursuing the investigation the best way we can. We need the public to help us with clues."

Cheryll Witz can't imagine why anyone would want to hurt her father. Witz says, "Knowing that somebody's out there that did this to my dad, you know, I just want them to come forward. We want to know who did this, why they did it, we just...we want justice."

88-Crime Director Gary Dhaemers, says, "Don't let the suspect who killed Jerry Taylor get away with murder. 88-Crime is waiting for your call."

If you have any information on the murder of Jerry Taylor, call 88-Crime or 882-7463. A cash reward of up to $2500 will go to the person whose tip leads to an arrest. As always, you can remain anonymous. 88-Crime doesn't want your name, just your information.

Obvious connection: the AQ training tape that showed assasinations on golf courses.

Also of interest...
In particular, new attention has been focused on the Al Kifah Refugee Center, known in Arabic as the Office of Services of the Mujahideen, that gave birth, as prosecutors laid out in their complaints and indictments, to Bin Laden's secret terrorist organization.
The Al Kifah Center was established in the early 1980's in Peshawar, Pakistan by Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian fundamentalist who spearheaded the jihad, or holy war against the Soviets in Afghanistan.
< -snip- >
Azzam built up the Al kifah Center to be the most effective jihad recruiting ground in the world, with officers in the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, and throughout the Middle East. Al Kifah opened dozens of centers throughout the United States, mostly at mosques and Islamic community centers. Major Al Kifah Centers were set up in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Brooklyn, Jersey City, Pittsburgh, and Tucson, while 30 other American cities were the sites of subsidiary Al Kifah offices…
< -snip- >
As the mujahideen realized victory in their jihad against the Soviets, the duty of jihad against the Soviets, the duty of jihad was expanded around the globe - any place that the enemies of Islam were deemed active. Al Kifah soon became an umbrella organization for worldwide jihad movements.
< -snip- >
Wadih El Hage, born in Lebanon in 1960, had come to the United States in the late 1970's to attend school at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette. In 1987, he moved to Tucson, Arizona, where he became an active member of the Al Kifah office at the Islamic Center. He soon became caught up in the jihad fervor, catching the attention of senior Al Kifah officials in both Tucson and in New York.
< -snip- >
In early 1990, a black Muslim cleric named Rashid Khalifa was murdered in Tucson. Khalifa had practiced a sect that was deemed heretical by fundamentalist Muslims (Ahmadiyya). He was soon marked for death.
According to federal prosecutors and to information volunteered by El Hage in interviews he gave to FBI agents, a still unidentified man was sent to Tucson to do surveillance on Khalifa. This person visited El Hage at his home, had lunch together and then was driven by El Hage to Khalifa's mosque where the visitor recorded the movements of Khalifa. El Hage admitted before the grand jury that he never reported this visit to the authorities even though Khalifa was later found murdered. Federal records show that Kalifa was killed by a member of the Al-Fuqra organization, a black Muslim fundamentalist group that has engaged in a series of murders, robberies, and other attacks in Colorado and Canada. Members of AlFuqra were also indicted and convicted in the World Trade Center bombing conspiracy trials. Sources familiar with the investigation say that Al-Fuqra as early as 1988 in acquiring weapons and recruiting volunteers for the jihad in Afghanistan.
LINK

Gilani's Al Faqra is not just another secretive Islamic group. It is a tiny cog in the global terror network epitomised by bin Laden's Al Qaida. In the early '90s, Faqra was the killer squad of a group called the Al Kifah Center, established in Peshawar by a Palestinian fundamentalist, Sheikh Abdullah Azzam. It was Al Kifah Center, set up in the early 1980s, which gave birth to the concept of violent jihad. The movement that began from a storefront in Peshawar activated networks across the world--thousands joined the ranks to fight the war against "enemies of Islam''. Now see the link. One of Azzam's associates was a Saudi billionaire called Osama bin Laden. One of Azzam's network of front organisations was Gilani's Al Faqra. Gilani worked both for the jihadis and the ISI. He is close to Jaish leader Maulana Masood Azhar. The Taliban chief Mullah Omar had links with Gilani. Sheikh Omar is a key member of Azhar's Jaish. Azhar and Omar are class fellows. Both got money from bin Laden. Omar funnelled money to terrorists. So did Gilani. Azhar is under house arrest in Pakistan. Omar surrendered in Karachi. Gilani was freed a few days back. Richard Reid the Shoe Bomber learned his ropes in Karachi. So did a host of others who executed the WTC attack of September 11. Musharraf's ISI knew all of them. That is why they burnt down their office in Rawalpindi a few weeks ago.
LINK

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