Mom Tried Warning U.S. of DC Sniper Suspect Lee Malvo - (It's the Cops' fault!)

ABCNEWS.com ^ | 6/23/2003 | AP

[BagCamAddict]

KINGSTON, Jamaica June 23 —

The mother of teenage sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo says no one took her seriously before the shootings when she warned U.S. authorities her son was in danger from John Allen Muhammad.

In a taped interview aired Sunday with Jamaican television station TVJ, Una James said she told police in Bellingham, Wash., in September 2001 that Muhammad was a bad influence and asked that her son be removed from his care.

"They were to blame," James said of police in her first aired interview since her son's arrest. "I told them that I needed help, that my son was in danger."

[BagCamAddict]

But wait, there's more!!

She also blamed her son's father, Leslie Malvo, for abandoning her and her son early in his life in the Caribbean island nation.

"He was a bad father. This didn't happen because I'm stupid or crazy," she said.

[BagCamAddict]

File this one in the "gimme a break" category.

[ChemistCat]

In 1998, James and Malvo moved from Jamaica to Antigua, where they met Muhammad. Investigators believe she bought identification papers from Muhammad and entered the United States in late 2000 while her son stayed behind with Muhammad.

Malvo came to the United States bearing a false passport that identified him as Muhammad's son, according to Antiguan officials.

He joined his mother in Fort Myers, Fla., but ran away in October 2001 to join Muhammad in Bellingham, where they lived at a homeless shelter as father and son.

She left her son in Antigua WITH MUHAMMAD. She left him there with this man she's claiming she didn't trust?

SHE IS LYING. Maybe she came not to trust him later, but if she saw him as a demon from the start, why did she leave her boy with him?

[slasher82]

Lawyers take your places. WHANHHHHHH! Po Me. PAIN & SUFFERING =$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!

[Risa]

>>This didn't happen because I'm stupid or crazy," she said.<< >>They were to blame," James said of police <<

She might have concealed her insanity and stupidity had she refrained from making the 'blame the police' statement.

[hellinahandcart]

[BagCamAddict]

It was an Associated Press article, so I was under the impression that they need to be excerpted.

[hellinahandcart]

Nope, AP articles are fine to post in full.

You can find the entire list of Washpost/LA TImes subsidiaries here, pages 13-16 and 18-20. It may look like a long list, but in terms of sources that produce actual news articles that we'd post here, it's not so long.

[BagCamAddict]

Oh geez.... I've excerpted ALOT of AP articles because I thought they had to be excerpted! Thanks so much for pointing it out to me. I hate unnecessary exerpting too!

[hellinahandcart]

No problem. I am on a quest. :D