Muhammad Is Gulf War Vet, Expert Marksman

Oct. 25, 2002 -- The older of the two suspects in the Washington, D.C.-area sniper attacks is a Gulf War veteran who qualified as an "expert" rifle marksman but faced two courts-martial and has a tumultuous past that includes allegations of kidnapping and domestic abuse.

Investigators are cobbling together clues from records and personal accounts of neighbors, family and friends about the personalities of John Allen Muhammad, 41, and John Lee Malvo, a 17-year-old Jamaican citizen whom Muhammad often described as his son or stepson.

Born in Louisiana on Dec. 31, 1960, Muhammad legally changed his name from John Allen Williams last year. He had converted to Islam some years ago.

Muhammad joined the Army National Guard in Louisiana in 1978, and moved to the active Army in 1985. He served as an Army combat engineer in the 1991 Gulf War. He eventually attained the rank of sergeant (E-5), and received an honorable discharge on April 25, 1994, from Fort Lewis in Washington state, Pentagon sources said.

That, however, did not end his association with the military. Muhammad joined the Army National Guard in Oregon in 1995 and served for a year. Again, he left with an honorable discharge.

Pentagon sources said his military record shows Muhammad qualified as an "expert" marksman with his engineering unit.

"Expert" is the highest rating of marksmanship. Lower ratings are "marksman," and "sharpshooter." To qualify as an expert, an applicant must, in a timed sequence, hit 36 of 40 targets at a variety of ranges from 50 meters to 300 meters.

Military officials said most soldiers eventually earn an expert rating.

Troubled Marriages, Custody Disputes

But over the past few years, his personal life appeared to be spinning out of control. Court records and accounts from his family and friends paint a picture of a man deeply troubled by family problems and failed business dealings.

Muhammad has two failed marriages behind him. In 1981, he married a woman now known as Carol Williams. Her sister Jackie married Muhammad's brother, Edward Williams.

Muhammad and Carol had a son, Lindberg, but the couple separated in 1985 and later divorced. Sheron Norman, another sister of Carol's, said the couple had a bitter custody dispute over Lindberg, now 20.

Speaking on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America today, Norman said the son visited Muhammad for the summer of 1994, but failed to return until his mother got a court order.

"He [Muhammad] decided he was going to keep him," she said. "We had to get lawyers to get himback."

Muhammad was based for a while at Fort Lewis in Washington state, and he stayed in the area after leaving the Army.He married again, and he and wife Mildred had three children, a son and two younger daughters.

But neither his second marriage nor his attempts to settle into civilian life worked out. A karate school that he co-owned was failing, and bills and lawsuits mounted. In March 2000, Mildred obtained a restraining order against him. There were allegations of domestic abuse.

Williams accused her ex-husband of threatening to destroy her life.

"I am afraid of John," she wrote in her application for the restraining order. "He was a demolition expert in the military. He is behaving very, very irrational. Whenever he does talk with me, he always says that he's going to destroy my life."

A Washington state Superior Court judge issued a protection order barring Muhammad from contacting his wife and the couple's children. But shortly after the restraining order was issued, Muhammad allegedly kidnapped the children.

The children were later returned to their mother, but while they were with Muhammad, he took them to the Caribbean, relatives said. It was there he reportedly met John Lee Malvo.

A New ‘Son’

Malvo became a sort of informal stepson to Muhammad, who had a relationship with the boy's mother. For a while the three lived in a familial-type arrangement, a senior law enforcement source told The Associated Press.

Malvo attended Bellingham High School in Washington state for a time. He is believed to have had minor run-ins with the police, although he does not have a criminal record.

Relatives claimed Muhammad controlled the youth, even forcing him to follow a strange but very strict diet of crackers and honey.

Muhammad, Malvo and the teen's mother, Uma Sceon James, were involved in a domestic incident in Bellingham on Dec. 19, 2001. Police called in the Border Patrol, who detained Malvo and James.

Both were released pending a hearing set for Nov. 20. There was some question about whether mother and son were in the United States legally. They were almost certainly facing deportation.

Muhammad was broke, living in a mission. He had lost two families and was set to lose a third.

Signs of Desperation

Signs of his desperation were now beginning to show. "That was the big thing," said Norman. "You could tell he was really depressed."

Earlier this year, when Harjeet Singh, a Bellingham resident, met Muhammad at a local YMCA gym, Muhammad expressed his frustration with the system, his rage against U.S. foreign policy and his sympathy for the Sept. 11 hijackers.

"He had sympathy with the 9/11 attackers and he also mentioned that he doesn't like the American foreign policies, especially toward the Islamic countries," Singh told Good Morning America. "He mentioned to me ... his intentions are to shoot a cop or law enforcement agent, or shoot fuel tankers on the highway."

Singh said he notified a Bellingham police detective in June, when Muhammad was arrested for a domestic abuse problem. He was then asked to make a statement to an FBI agent — which he said he did.

Authorities, however, have maintained that Muhammad and Malvo appeared to be acting alone.

"It appears that these people that have been taken into custody are not acting with any group or with any organized group of people. It appears that they have acted on their own," said Bellingham Police Chief Randy Carroll.

The Seattle area is known as an area where terrorist cells have operated in the past.

ABCNEWS' John McWethy in Washington, Mike Gudgell in Seattle and Neal Karlinsky in Tacoma, Wash., contributed to this report.