Locked Out of Car, Suspect Got Police Help Before Muhammad Shooting : Crime: Campus officer opened vehicle for James Bess, who was described as polite. An hour later, Bess allegedly wounded the black nationalist and five others.

An apparently distracted James Edward Bess locked his keys in his car at UC Riverside about an hour before he allegedly shot Nation of Islam speaker Khallid Abdul Muhammad--and campus police came to his rescue, university officials said Wednesday.

After police confirmed that Bess had rightful use of the vehicle and opened it for him, Bess moved the vehicle from a housing complex across the street from the gymnasium where Muhammad had begun speaking 45 minutes earlier.

Bess, 49, who was expelled from the Nation of Islam after serving as a minister of a Seattle mosque four years ago, never made it back to his car. He was beaten by the crowd after he allegedly opened fire with a semiautomatic handgun, striking Muhammad and five of his bodyguards after they left the building.

Later, police found Bess’ vehicle about two blocks away, near one of the main campus entrances. Inside the vehicle, they found a high-powered rifle and ammunition. At the scene of the shooting, they also recovered a backpack containing two semiautomatic handguns that they said belonged to Bess.

Nothing about Bess’ behavior or actions attracted the officer’s attention when he helped Bess get into his car, university spokesman Jack Chappell said.

“There was nothing unusual about the vehicle, and the individual’s demeanor was polite,” Chappell said.

Chappell said the call for police assistance came in at 4:45 p.m. Sunday, after Bess was unable to break into his car with a coat hanger he got from a student resident on campus. Unknown to Bess, the student called police for help, and they promptly showed up, Chappell said.

The campus police dispatcher, using the vehicle’s license plate number, called the registered owner of the car in Washington state, who confirmed that Bess had permission to drive it, Chappell said. He would not release the name of the owner of the car but said investigators were following up with that person.

Muhammad and his bodyguards were shot just minutes after 6 p.m.

Bess--who was convicted of manslaughter in 1964 in Missouri and who shot and killed his brother in Fresno in 1975 in what was ruled self-defense--has been charged in the Muhammad shooting with one count of attempted premeditated murder and five counts of assault with a firearm. He has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail and remains hospitalized at Riverside General Hospital from injuries--including a broken shoulder--inflicted by people who beat him after the shooting.

Muhammad, meanwhile, is in good condition at Riverside Community Hospital, where he underwent surgery Tuesday night for the removal of bullet fragments from his leg, officials there said.

Dr. Nicandro Marciano, who assisted in the surgery, described Muhammad as “uncannily lucky” because the fragments were less than 1 millimeter away from a major artery which, if hit, “could have been not only limb-threatening, but life-threatening.”

Muhammad--who was suspended last year as spokesman for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan after his verbal assault on Jews, Arabs and whites--has lost feeling in the sole of his foot because of slight nerve damage caused by the wound, Marciano said. It was too early to tell if the damage is permanent, he said.

Hospital spokeswoman Ann Matich said Muhammad is expected to remain hospitalized for a few more days.

Farrakhan is scheduled to speak Saturday at the Thomas and Mack Center at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. Officials at the center said they doubt that Muhammad will also appear there.

The question of whether Muhammad’s injury will elevate his stature as an outspoken and, in some corners, increasingly popular representative of the Nation of Islam is a matter of debate among students of the group.

Even before the shooting, there was discussion among academics about the potential rivalry between Farrakhan and his former spokesman, Muhammad, said Aminah Beverly McCloud, assistant professor of Islamic studies at DePaul University in Chicago, where the Nation of Islam is headquartered.

Farrakhan had criticized Muhammad for the sharp language of his anti-Semitic comments--but not its content. Although the two appear to remain close, it is unclear what direction their relationship is taking, McCloud said.

Farrakhan was seen as more the gentleman of the two and open to potential dialogue with Jews and others, while Muhammad was seen as more hard-line, McCloud said.

Muhammad is especially popular among young people but his following is growing across class and educational lines, McCloud said. Whether Muhammad tries to capitalize on the shooting remains to be seen, she said.

Lawrence Mamiya, associate professor of religion and Africana studies at Vassar College, said he was unaware of any rivalry between Farrakhan and Muhammad--yet. And although Muhammad does not have the organizational base to challenge Farrakhan at this point, “I’m sure he’ll be in greater demand” because of the shooting, Mamiya said.

Whatever the current relationship between Farrakhan and Muhammad, officials with the Nation of Islam seem to be taking a clear interest in the shooting. Chappell said that late Tuesday night, about 20 people who identified themselves to campus police as “from Chicago” and “associated with the Nation of Islam” showed up at the shooting site and re-enacted the event, apparently for their own purposes.

Chappell said the group left within an hour.

The spokesman downplayed the discovery of a hole in a construction fence that borders the 5-month-old gymnasium, along the side where Muhammad parked his vehicle on Sunday.

A hedge of large bushes runs along the inside of the fence--providing a possible hiding place for a sniper who intended to take aim at Muhammad’s vehicle, some reporters speculated at a news briefing.

Chappell said campus police were unaware of the hole in the fence until Tuesday, but said the small hole, through which a person conceivably could have crawled to hide in the bushes, appeared to have been there for some time. Investigators nonetheless are investigating whether Bess might have cut the hole, Chappell said.