“I just found some white men to kill,” an accused murderer said. He not only confessed to cops that he murdered three people, but he also held aloft a Nation of Islam newsletter for cameras during his trial.
Kori Ali Muhammad, a Nation of Islam follower, went on a killing spree, leaving four people dead. It began with the fatal shooting of Carl Williams III, a 25-year-old security guard. Although Muhammad later claimed Williams had harassed him, surveillance video from the Motel 6 in northwest Fresno, California, where the shooting occurred, showed Muhammad perpetrating a sneak attack as Williams talked to his friend. It also captured a clear image of the suspect.
Muhammad initially went into hiding and considered fleeing Fresno, but five days later, he got WiFi long enough to realize he was a wanted man. After seeing himself named as a suspect in Williams’ death, according to ABC 30, Muhammad had a change of plans. Since he was a suspect in the killing of one white man and knew it was only a matter of time before he got caught, he thought he might as well go out and kill more, The Fresno Bee reported. So, he walked downtown and became a serial killer, carrying out three racially motivated murders.
After killing Zackary Randalls, Mark Gassett, and David Jackson, Kori Muhammad was arrested by police and told them he was well aware of the reason for his arrest. “Because I killed those people and the security guard,” he said. Muhammad then revealed to investigators, in detail, how he came to the decision to kill the three men. And, it all came down to the color of their skin as he alleged that he was upset with racism against blacks in the United States.
“It starts taking its toll on you and you get fed up with the racism. You get tired of letting things slide,” Muhammad said as he confessed to cops that he targeted and killed the three men because of their race. Muhammad said that he was tired of the disrespect against blacks and that if he was “going down for murder,” the best thing was to “kill as many white men” as he could. That confession, made during his first police interview after his arrest, was shown during Kori Muhammad’s capital murder trial.
Muhammad said he put his plans into action after being triggered by the site of a Pacific Gas & Electric truck. He decided to target the truck because his father worked for the company until his addiction to crack cocaine ruined his life. Muhammad blamed the U.S. government for his father’s downfall, saying the government allowed crack cocaine to spread.
“When I walked up to the [PG&E] truck, I saw a Mexican driver and a white guy,” Muhammad admitted. “I didn’t want to target the driver because he was Mexican, so I shot the white dude,” he added. Muhammad raised his Colt Python .357 revolver and fired four times, hitting 34-year-old Zackary Randalls. Muhammad then reportedly fatally shot 37-year-old Mark Gassett and 58-year-old David Jackson, targeting them simply because they were white. And, according to his own family, his hate for white people wasn’t anything new:
“I didn’t want to do nothing to law enforcement, so I just found some white men to kill,” Muhammad confessed on video, but he couldn’t make it through his entire video of his confession in court. As it played, he opted to leave the courtroom and asked to return to his cell, waiving his right to be present — something he had already done a few times during his trial.
However, that’s not the only unusual occurrence to take place in the courtroom involving Kori Muhammad. During his hearing, the defendant also held aloft a Nation of Islam newsletter for cameras. Muhammad’s religion, which has been “denounced by mainstream Muslims,” according to ABC 30, “could be part of the case against him.”
“His confession included a few off the wall comments about his deadly magic,” the station added, “but investigators have argued his belief system may sound like conspiracy theories, but it’s openly discussed and accepted in the Nation of Islam. The defense will argue it’s evidence he was insane at the time.”
However, the fact that Kori Ali Muhammad laid out his decisions in detail to the police doesn’t paint a picture of a man who didn’t know what he was doing. “This is telling me that he knows exactly what’s going on,” Fresno police detective Miguel Alvarez explained. “He knows exactly what occurred earlier,” Alvarez added, and we couldn’t agree more. Regardless of what belief system fueled his hate, the fact remains that he committed a crime and knew exactly what he was doing when he did it.
