Seattle man says he killed 4 in Wash., N.J. to gain revenge against U.S.

A Seattle man who confessed to killing four people in Washington and New Jersey this year said each shooting was part of a mission of vengeance against the U.S. government for its actions in the Middle East, according to court documents released Wednesday.

Ali Muhammad Brown, who had already been charged in the targeted killing of a gay couple in Seattle and the point-blank shooting of a New Jersey college student, was charged Wednesday with the April slaying of 30-year-old Leroy Henderson in Skyway, Wash., according to the King County Prosecutor’s Office.

According to a criminal complaint filed in King County, Brown took responsibility for each shooting and told investigators he carried out the killings to gain retribution for lives lost during U.S. military action in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

“My mission is my mission between me and my lord. That’s it,” Brown said during a jailhouse interview in New Jersey, according to the court filings. “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,” Brown continued. “So a life for a life.”

Brown’s bloody rampage began April 27, when he is accused of gunning down Henderson near his home in Skyway. On June 1, he used a dating application for gay men to lure Dwone Anderson-Young and Ahmed Said to a Seattle nightclub before shooting them both at close range, documents say.

The 29-year-old “essentially executed” both men, according to court filings.

After Seattle police spread his picture through the media, Brown fled to New Jersey, where he gunned down 19-year-old Brendan Tevlin in West Orange during what appeared to be a robbery, Essex County, N.J., prosecutors have said.

Brown, was also linked to a series of violent robberies in the state, was arrested at a makeshift campsite in a wooded area of northern New Jersey on July 18, prosecutors have said.

He described the shooting of Tevlin as a “just kill,” and told police he only targeted adult men and tried not to attack anyone in the presence of women, children or elderly persons, according to the documents.

Police believe he stole a vehicle and handgun from the mother of his children, and used the same weapon in all four shootings, according to court filings.

Brown remains in custody in New Jersey, where he has pleaded not guilty to Tevlin’s killing. It remains unclear whether he will stand trial first in New Jersey or Washington, but law enforcement officials have said he could face the death penalty for the killings in Skyway and Seattle.

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