On the 11 o’clock news…

Suspect Pleads Not Guilty in Soldier’s Death
posted 06/02/09 9:22 am

Little Rock - A man accused of killing a soldier in a “political and religious” attack on a military recruiting center pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a capital murder charge. He was ordered held without bond.

Abdulhakim Muhammad is charged in Monday’s death of 23-year-old William Long outside the Army-Navy Career Center in a west Little Rock shopping center. A prosecutor said Muhammad admitted shooting Long and another soldier “because of what they had done to Muslims in the past.”

Long and soldier Quinton Ezeagwula had recently completed basic training and had never seen combat. Police Chief Stuart Thomas said Muhammad was a convert to Islam and was not part of a broader scheme to attack the American military.

A law enforcement official tells The Associated Press that Muhammad was arrested and jailed in Yemen at one point for using a Somali passport.

An FBI (web) -led joint terrorism task force based in the southern United States has been investigating Muhammad after his return to the United States. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was not authorized to discuss the investigation.