Suspect had ties to Tacoma victim (Sniper MUHAMMAD)

Seattle Times ^ | October 26th, 2002 | Steve Miletich and Christine Clarridge

[Sabertooth]

Saturday, October 26, 2002 - 12:30 a.m. Pacific

Suspect had ties to Tacoma victim

By Steve Miletich and Christine Clarridge
Seattle Times staff reporters

KING-TV / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Keenya Cook, 21, was shot to death Feb. 16, when she opened the door of her Tacoma home to the gunman.

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How did Muhammad get the rifle?
Murder charges filed in Maryland

John Allen Muhammad, one of two people charged in the Washington, D.C.-area sniper attacks, is also being investigated in an 8-month-old killing that had baffled Tacoma police, law-enforcement officials said yesterday.

Using ballistics evidence and DNA, investigators are trying to link Muhammad, 41, to the slaying of Keenya Cook, 21, who was shot once in the face Feb. 16, when she opened the door of her Tacoma home.

Police also are investigating whether Muhammad and his companion, Lee Boyd Malvo, 17, are connected to the unsolved shooting death of a nurse in Redmond over the summer, though a police source cited no specific evidence connecting them to the case.

In Tacoma, Cook lived at the house with her aunt, Isa Nichols, who had worked as the bookkeeper for a car-repair business Muhammad operated in the mid-1990s.

Nichols had a falling out with Muhammad when she supported Muhammad's ex-wife Mildred Williams, who also lived in Tacoma, in a divorce and child-custody action that began in 1998, Tacoma police spokesman Jim Mattheis said yesterday.

Muhammad is "clearly a person of interest" in Cook's slaying, Mattheis said.

Cook apparently was shot as she opened the door, and police are looking at the possibility that Nichols was the intended target, said a federal law-enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Only Cook and her 6-month-old daughter were at home at the time of the shooting. Ballistic tests will be done to see if Muhammad can be linked to the handgun used in Cook's death, said Barbara Cory-Boulet, a senior Pierce County prosecutor.

The bullet will be compared with a handgun seized from Muhammad after his arrest Thursday in the sniper case, said a federal law-enforcement official. Muhammad was arrested with Malvo, who also was charged in the sniper case.

Investigators also plan to compare a small amount of DNA found on a shell cartridge recovered in Cook's killing with Muhammad's DNA, Cory-Boulet said. The DNA is from human oil left on the cartridge.

Tacoma police initially suspected Cook's boyfriend or the father of her daughter in her death but ruled them out.

The case remained without a suspect until Nichols saw Muhammad's picture on television after his arrest early Thursday in the sniper case, Mattheis said.

Nichols' mother-in-law called Tacoma police to report the family's newfound suspicions about Muhammad, Joseph Nichols, the husband of Isa Nichols, said last night.

When police began investigating, Isa Nichols told detectives about the falling out with Muhammad over the divorce and child-custody issues, Mattheis said. She had not previously thought of Muhammad as a suspect in Cook's killing.

Joseph Nichols, a staff sergeant at Fort Lewis, said last night that his wife had helped lead authorities to Muhammad when he took off with his children after his divorce from Williams in March 2000.

Muhammad was caught with his children in Bellingham in August 2001 when he applied for state aid. A state fraud investigator cross-checked his name with a report of missing children and reported Muhammad to the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office.

A sheriff's detective pulled the children out of school, served papers on Muhammad and arranged for the children to be returned to their mother.

The role Isa Nichols played in recovering the children remains unclear.

Isa Nichols told Tacoma police this week that before her dispute with Muhammad, she had worked for him for about two years as the bookkeeper for Express Car/Truck Mechanic Service, a business he had incorporated in 1995.

Her niece was shot to death about 8 p.m. on a Saturday, said John Reisch, a medical investigator with the Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office.

"The aunt left to go shopping, came home and found (Cook) laying inside the front door," Reisch said.

Joseph Nichols said last night that he was shocked when Muhammad's photograph appeared on television after his arrest in the sniper case.

"I just didn't think John was capable of that," Nichols said.

Nichols recalled Muhammad, a former Fort Lewis soldier, as quiet, subdued and a strict disciplinarian with his children.

"To me, he was a little overboard there," Nichols said. "His kids just sat real quiet when he was there. When he wasn't around, they played like regular kids."

Cook's mother, Pamala Nichols, and Joseph Nichols' sister Linda said last night they feel betrayed by Muhammad because they had dinner with him many times, including last Thanksgiving.

"We fed him and everything," said Linda Nichols.

Meanwhile, in the Redmond case, police are working with federal agents to see if Muhammad or Malvo have any connection to the unsolved shooting death of Victoria Mardis, 49, a nurse killed the night of July 26. Police believe she had pulled her car over on the way home from work after she realized she left some papers on the car's roof. She was shot in the face at close range.

Redmond detectives had been building leads to suggest that the Mardis slaying was committed as part of a local gang initiation, a police source said. Many local gang members have been questioned, but no suspects have emerged.

"Until we heard of this sniper thing, that was our likely scenario," the source said.

Seattle Times reporters Duff Wilson and Mike Carter contributed to this story.

Steve Miletich: 206-464-3302 or smiletich@seattletimes.com.

Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com.

[Sabertooth]

[Sabertooth]

((((((growl)))))

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

This guy is looking more like just a raw killer!

[KingKongCobra]

I saw an article today that said the stolen credit card was traced to a dead bus driver in Arizona. He's really looking like a travelling serial killer.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

stolen credit card was traced to a dead bus driver in Arizona

That is the first time had heard that.

[Sabertooth]

More coincidences between the John Allen Muhammad case and Jamaat al-Fuqra here.

Keep in mind, the co-owner of the rolling sniper's nest, the 1990 Chevy Caprice, was captured today in Michigan.

Shortly after the hotel bombing in Portland, two Fuqra members allegedly murdered Dr. Mozaffar Ahmad, a leader of the minority Ahmadiyyah Islamic sect in Canton, Mich. Both suspects died in a fire they had set at the Ahmadiyyah mosque in nearby Detroit, but the weapon used to murder Ahmad was found with their bodies. No one was ever charged in a triple slaying on August 1, 1984, but police suspect Fuqra. The victims were Lela Nevaskar, an Indian national who was in the United States as part of a government-sponsored health project, and her sister and brother-in-law. The three were murdered in a suburb of Tacoma, Wash., during a spate of firebombings of Hindu and Hare Krishna temples in Seattle, Denver, Philadelphia, and Kansas City, Mo. Police found news reports of the Tacoma murders from Seattle papers among Fuqra files seized in a later case…

And at the Red House (VA) commune--whose origins go back to 1993, after Fuqra abandoned its Buena Vista, Co., location in the wake of conspiracy convictions--agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms made three arrests last fall. They charged Vincente Rafael Pierre and his wife Traci Elaine Upshur after she made "straw purchases" of .45 caliber handguns that her husband had selected. As a felon (he pleaded guilty in the workers' compensation scam), Pierre is not allowed to own firearms. A jury convicted both. A third Red House resident, Abdullah Ben Benu, is scheduled for trial in April for illegally transporting ammunition for AK-47 automatic rifles. Here, again, a trail leads back to Pakistan: The woman who raised Ben Benu is living in Lahore, according to law enforcement sources, with (Portland) bombmaker Stephen Paul Paster.
Sheikh Gilani's American Disciples

[Fixit]

OK, but who is "Jill Lynn Farrell"?

[fooman]

The DNA is from human oil left on the cartridge...


Righteous! IF they can make a connection on this little bit of DNA.

[Sabertooth]

	Peter Haley | The News Tribune
	Staff Sgt. Joseph Nichols pauses before his front door where his niece, Keenya Cook, was shot and killed in February. Tacoma police are now investigating whether John Allen Muhammad could have been involved.

Muhammad scrutinized in area death

Jason Hagey and Stefano Esposito; The News Tribune

John Allen Muhammad is a "person of interest" in an unsolved Tacoma homicide, police said Friday, offering yet another twist in a serial killer case that unexpectedly turned to the South Sound this week.

Police and the FBI have discovered Muhammad - charged Friday in Montgomery County, Md., in connection with six homicides - was a friend of the family of a 21-year-old woman shot to death in February at her aunt and uncle's East Tacoma home.

It isn't clear whether there was a direct connection between Muhammad - a former Fort Lewis soldier - and the victim, Keenya Cook.

But police know Cook's aunt - who once provided accounting services for Muhammad's Tacoma auto repair business - sided with Muhammad's second wife, Mildred, in the couple's divorce.

The aunt, Isa Nichols, went as far as to intervene in the couple's custody battle, calling police to help with the seizure of their three children after Muhammad allegedly abducted them, said her husband, Joseph Nichols, a staff sergeant at Fort Lewis.

"My wife was trying to help his wife get (her kids back) because John took the kids," Joseph Nichols told reporters outside his house Friday.

Isa Nichols could not be reached Friday.

Muhammad was bitter about losing custody of his children, court records indicate, and retained an attorney in an effort to get them back.

Still, the revelation wouldn't seem to explain the Feb. 16 slaying of Cook, the young mother who was shot once in the head with a large-caliber handgun while standing in the door of the Nichols home in 2400 block of East 34th Street.

Joseph Nichols said he doubts Muhammad, 41, ever met Cook, and he said Muhammad never seemed to express anger toward the family over Isa Nichols' involvement in his custody dispute.

Police stopped short of identifying Muhammad as a suspect in the case, noting they have no specific evidence that points to him.

"It's something to go on," said police spokesman Jim Mattheis. Detectives interviewed Isa Nichols on Thursday and planned to review the case in detail.

Until this week, the investigation had grown "fairly cold," Mattheis said.

The possible link between Muhammad and Cook didn't surface until this week, when the Nichols family recognized Muhammad's photo on television and called authorities.

Muhammad's name had not been mentioned before in the Cook case, Mattheis said.

"The aunt didn't think about it," he said, "and obviously we didn't know who he was."

After Muhammad was identified in connection with the sniper spree, members of the family were shocked - and suddenly suspicious.

"The police told us all along that if we heard of anything, (we should call them)," Joseph Nichols said. "And when that came up, I knew John was here and the case was still unsolved and so we figured we'd just inform them."

Cook's mother, Pamala Nichols, was excited that they might finally have some answers.

"I ran to my mother, I was like, 'Oh, Mom, it might be a break in our case,'" Pamala Nichols said.

The family immediately called the police.

"I mean, it's just too much, it's too close," Pamala Nichols said. "It's too close. It's too close."

At the time of the shooting, Cook had recently moved in with her aunt to get away from her boyfriend - the father of her daughter. There were no witnesses to her slaying and no suspects.

It didn't appear the shooter broke into the house or stole anything. Cook had been home alone with her 6-month-old baby.

Isa Nichols found her niece lying in a pool of blood in the open doorway when she returned home about 7:30 p.m. A pot of chicken was left burning on the stove. Upstairs in a bedroom, Cook's daughter lay naked on a towel.

Detectives spoke to Cook's boyfriend, but he wasn't considered a suspect.

On Friday, a neighbor recalled seeing an unfamiliar car in the neighborhood the day of the shooting. The driver parked it and then moved it two or three times, said the neighbor, Kathleen Yellowcalf.

She described the car as large, white with a black top and a gold chain-like license plate frame.

"That's why I was watching it," she said, "because it was a nice-looking car, a big car."

Court records indicate Muhammad was in Tacoma four days before Cook's slaying. He was cited Feb. 12 for allegedly shoplifting Gardenburgers, a box of tea, packages of meat and crackers from a Tacoma grocery store.

The Nichols family said they never met John Lee Malvo, the teenager arrested with Muhammad.

Joseph Nichols said he and his family met Muhammad in the early 1990s when Muhammad came to fix Nichols' car.

Later, Isa Nichols began providing accounting services for Muhammad's auto repair business, Express Car/Truck Mechanic Inc. Isa Nichols eventually became close friends with Mildred Muhammad.

"They had a good business relationship," Joseph Nichols said. "The whole family has been to my house for social gatherings."

Joseph Nichols remembered Muhammad as a "quiet, kind of subdued person," but also unusually stern with his children.

"He was a very strict disciplinarian," Joseph Nichols said. "To me, it was a little overboard."

Even so, Joseph Nichols said, he liked Muhammad and never would have suspected him of being linked to Cook's killing if it weren't for his apparent connection to the sniper case.

Mattheis said police are looking into possible connections between Muhammad and other Tacoma cases, as well. And he suspects Tacoma isn't the only department poring over old case files.

The state Attorney General's Office has compared details of the sniper case to facts from the thousands of cases in its computerized Homicide Investigation Tracking System, said spokesman Gary Larson.

He would not divulge whether the sniper case matched up with any information in the database.

"I couldn't go into that," Larson said. "All I can say is if we were to find something of interest - something that might be of interest to a law enforcement agency - we would let them know about that."

Staff writer David Quigg contributed to this report.

Stefano Esposito: 253-597-8644
stefano.esposito@mail.tribnet.com

Jason Hagey: 253-941-9634
jason.hagey@mail.tribnet.com
(Published 12:30AM, October 26th, 2002)

LINK

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for a scary and spooky ping that may be related to the Mass Murdering Nation of Islam killer, John Muhammed.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[nicmarlo]

I hope he gets nailed for every person he's murdered.

[hfartalot]

[archy]

The bullet will be compared with a handgun siezed from Muhammed after his arrest...

I wonder if they'll also check the evidence in this murder, sometimes described as a *sniper attack,* though the victim was killed with a handgun. Or just as likely, if the feds are too busy looking for a white guy to frame for it.

-archy-/-

[Fixit]

Bus driver, yes, Dead, no.

From the Washington Post

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.

As noted above, the Post did not hide her name in the .pdf file it released. I guess the Post's word is not its bond...

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the ping back!

driving a bus on the 337-mile route between Nogales, Ariz., and Flagstaff.

Anyone know about Muslims down around Nogales, Ariz.?

Preferred border crossing perhaps?

JIHAD IN AMERICA:

To find all articles tagged or indexed using JIHAD IN AMERICA, click below:
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[Sabertooth]

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.

Here's the route from Nogales to Flagstaff:

Notice that the bus went right through Tuscon.

Now check out this excerpt:

On January 30, 1990, Dr. Khalifa’s problems on this planet were completely solved. On that day, he was stabbed to death in the kitchen of his Tucson, Arizona masjid, allegedly by a cell of Jama’atul Fuqra. Jamaat ul-Fuqra is an Islamic sect that seeks to purify Islam through violence. Operating from Pakistan and North America, Fuqra is led by Pakistani cleric Shaykh Mubarik Ali Gilani, who established the organization in the early 1980s. Gilani now resides in Pakistan, but most Fuqra cells are located in North America and the Caribbean. Fuqra members have purchased isolated rural compounds in North America to live communally, practice their faith, and insulate themselves from Western culture..

Jama’atul Fuqra was declared a "terrorist" organization by the US State Department. Although no specific person has been convicted of killing Dr. Khalifa, the person implicated in the killing was Wadih El Hage, an associate of Osma Bin Laden. This is because,

Prosecutors have repeatedly implied El Hage knows who committed the murder and may have been involved. . .El Hage's family calls the claim ridiculous, saying El Hage was out of the country at the time of the murder. Prosecutors have repeatedly said El Hage at least should have contacted the authorities with what he knew after he found out that the man was murdered.
Islam and the Internet

So, here we have another coincidence between John Allen Muhammad and Jamaat al Fuqra. See #6 above.

[Palladin]

What the heck is our Homeland Security boss, Tom Ridge, doing about the possibility of numerous murderous muslim bastards like John Mohammad roaming freely about the country, robbing and killing at will?

Damn political correctness--full speed ahead!

Start with overhauling INS. Throw out the a**holes who let John Malvo stay in this country.


I am mad as hell about this whole situation.

[Grampa Dave]

al Fugra and Jamaat al Fuqra seem to be the links in this mess.

Now we have the Caribbean Jamaat al Fuqra connections tied in with this case.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

WOW!!!

Where is the excerpt from?