An ISIS attack on U.S. soil has fueled fear and speculation among Americans since the graphic beheading video in which a member of the terrorist group decapitated U.S. journalist James Foley last week.
Texas Governor Rick Perry has even pointed out that ISIS members may have gotten in to the country amid the unrest on the Texas-Mexico border.
And now a killing spree that targeted a Seattle gay couple has fallen under the spotlight as a possible ISIS attack. That’s because the suspect, Ali Muhammad Brown, 29, confessed that he committed the murders as a result of U.S. involvement in Iraq and Syria, a cause shared by the people behind the James Foley video.
In a recent report from the Advocate , Brown was quoted as saying the following:
My mission is my mission between me and my Lord. That’s it. My mission is vengeance, for the lives, millions of lives are lost every day…. All these lives are taken every single day by America, by this government. So a life for a life.”
While Brown doesn’t come out and say that this is an official ISIS attack, his alleged words certainly endorse the sentiment behind it being one.
According to the Advocate , Brown posted a dating application meet up request, luring in 23-year-old Dwone Anderson-Young and 27-year-old Ahmed Said.
When the men answered the ad, Brown allegedly gunned them down and then fled to New Jersey where prosecutors claim he killed 19-year-old college student Brendan Tevlin.
Brown has also been charged with shooting and killing 30-year-old Leroy Henderson.
More from the report:
“Court records indicate that Brown ‘essentially executed’ the gay couple, and killed each of his victims by shooting them at point-blank range. Police believe Brown stole a car and the murder weapon from the mother of his children, using the same gun in all four killings…. Brown told police he considered the murder of Tevlin, the New Jersey college student, a ‘just kill,’ and apparently took time to explain to prosecutors that he only targeted adult men and tried to make sure there were no women, children, or elderly people nearby during any of the attacks.”
While ordinarily the murders of the gay men would qualify as a “hate crime,” Brown’s motivations seem more driven by religion and anti-Americanism than anything else. That’s what has fueled speculation of this being an example of ISIS in America.
What do you think, readers? Were the four homicides an ISIS attack or crimes committed by an unrelated sympathizer?