Miami INS detained sniper suspect,

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Posted on Sun, Oct. 27, 2002 story:PUB_DESC

By ALFONSO CHARDY, MARIKA LYNCH AND LARRY LEBOWITZ achardy@herald.com

John Allen Muhammad, the U.S. Army veteran charged with murder in the Washington, D.C.-area sniper slayings, was detained for hours at Miami International Airport in April 2001 because immigration inspectors suspected he was trying to smuggle two undocumented Jamaican women into the country, a U.S. government official said Saturday.

Muhammad was fleeing authorities in Antigua, where police suspected he might be involved in human smuggling and making fraudulent documents.

The April 14, 2001, episode at MIA took place when inspectors stopped Muhammad, whom they thought was using false documents and attempting to help his traveling companions -- two Jamaican women -- enter the country, also with fake documents.

Muhammad and the women were detained while U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service investigators checked their stories. INS officials eventually concluded that Muhammad was a U.S. citizen. He was cleared to enter the country; the women were deported.

''We were satisfied at the time of Muhammad's return to the country in April 2001 that he was a U.S. citizen,'' said John Shewairy, the INS chief of staff in the Miami district office.

Muhammad was born John Allen Williams in Louisiana 41 years ago.

NO CHARGES

Though Muhammad was allowed to leave, the U.S. official said, INS investigators wanted to pursue a case of alien smuggling or document fraud against him and referred the issue to the U.S. Attorney's Office. However, no charges were filed because immigration officials and prosecutors concluded there was not enough evidence, the official said.

Jacqueline Becerra, a spokeswoman for Miami U.S. Attorney Marcos Daniel Jiménez, said her office has no record of a referral on the case.

The U.S. official said he was ''baffled'' by the statement and said he could not explain why the U.S. Attorney's Office would not have a record of the referral.

Muhammad's brief stop in Miami last year came as he made his way back from Antigua, where he apparently had met John Lee Malvo, the 17-year-old Jamaican also charged in the sniper attacks. Malvo followed Muhammad into the United States about two months after the MIA incident, arriving with his mother aboard a cargo ship that carried several undocumented immigrants. An immigration agency report filed months later suggested that Malvo and his mother stepped ashore somewhere south of Miami -- apparently undetected by immigration authorities.

Eventually, Malvo made his way to Bellingham, Wash., where he resumed his friendship with Muhammad. Muhammad, a former combat engineer in the Persian Gulf War, had once been stationed at Fort Lewis in nearby Tacoma and was familiar with the area. They moved into an apartment where -- according to neighbors -- they frequently conducted target practice with a high-powered rifle.

Before Bellingham, Muhammad lived in Antigua with his three children, -- two girls, Taliba and Selina, and a boy, John -- trying to escape from marital problems in the United States. For a time, neighbors said, Malvo also lived in Muhammad's three-bedroom, white wood stilt house with lime green trim on Rose Street in St. John's, the island's capital. Muhammad introduced Malvo as his son, too, neighbors said.

DIDN'T HAVE JOB

Though he didn't have a job, Muhammad managed to send his three children to one of the island's few private schools. Muhammad applied for at least two jobs in 2000, one as a coach with government schools and another to train security guards. He got neither. Police think he may have turned to smuggling and falsifying documents to earn money.

Antigua authorities point to an episode on March 11, 2001, when Muhammad showed up at the American Airlines ticket counter at the airport in St. John's trying to board a plane to Los Angeles via Miami. He was holding a Fort Lauderdale-issued birth certificate and a Washington state driver's license in the name of Russel Dwight, according to documents obtained by the Antiguan police.

Airline workers recognized Muhammad from earlier trips and called immigration, police said. The date of birth on the documents he presented was May 12, 1975, 15 years before Muhammad was born.

Police detained Muhammad and took him to a police station, where he was questioned. There, Muhammad told police his name was John Edwards and that he was from Austin, Texas. He said he had arrived in Antigua four months earlier from Miami, according to Antigua police Detective Fitzroy Anthony. Muhammad wouldn't explain why he was carrying someone else's documents, Anthony said.

Muhammad then slipped out of the St. John's police station, without officers realizing it. Police searched neighboring streets.

''We never found him,'' said Truehart Smith, police commissioner of Antigua and Barbuda.

Police believe Muhammad was planning to check into the American Airlines flight, then pass the ticket and documentation to another person so that person could travel illegally to the United States.

OTHER DOCUMENTS

That wasn't the only instance when Muhammad was caught with fake documents, Antiguan officials said.

He received an Antiguan passport by using two fake documents: a forged birth certificate for himself and an Antigua and Barbuda-issued birth certificate for a woman he claimed was his mother, Antiguan authorities said.

The name he used came from his daughter's fourth-grade teacher, Muriel Bennett. One day, she recalled, Muhammad stopped to talk to her while jogging. At the time, the teacher's last name was Allan and Muhammad noted they may be related. That's when Bennett recounted her family's history and the two concluded they weren't kin.

But Muhammad used Bennett's mother's name to forge a birth certificate that qualified him for an Antiguan passport.

The Seattle Times contributed to this report.

-- Anonymous, October 27, 2002

Answers

Before the touchy-feely Blairites took over the UK, even small infractions were punished. You couldn't get away with much of anything, I don't care who you were. It's a major reason why the UK crime rate was much lower than in the US. Then the over-sensitive liberals took over and---boom-o! The crime rate rocketed.

When I first got involved in crime prevention in Norfolk, VA, I was astonished to learn that police wouldn't take a report on a shoplifting at a convenience store unless it involved over $500. (Department stores and others had their own security who could make arrests and, thus, police had to fill out a report).

What happened is that when the villains discovered they could shoplift virtually with impunity, instead of ripping off a couple of packs of ciggies, they would go in with a garbage bag and rip off about $400 worth. (Course, in those days $400 in ciggies was a LOT of cartons.)

So once al these people got used to stealing garbage bags full of stuff, it wasn't a huge step to get in the habit of stealing anything that wasn't bigger than an aircraft carrier. Police started to get completely overwhelmed; just not enough officers to take care of all teh crimes that were committed. Response times became longer and longer; crooks could not only steal but also assault and get away with it. People didn't want to report them because

-- Anonymous, October 27, 2002


Airline workers recognized Muhammad from earlier trips and called immigration, police said. The date of birth on the documents he presented was May 12, 1975, 15 years before Muhammad was born.

I think they meant after. He was 41, remember? That means he was born in 1960 or thereabouts.

-- Anonymous, October 27, 2002


Dammit, I didn't realize I lost the ending of that till I clicked back in here. Oh well, basically it's a rambling way of saying a stitch in time saves nine. If we would ONLY rap knuckles when they're committing the small crimes, we MIGHT be able to prevent bigger ones. Let the baddies know we're just not going to put up with their crap.

-- Anonymous, October 27, 2002

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