On April 18, 2017, a racially motivated shooting spree occurred in Fresno, California, leaving three white people dead.
[15] Prior to engaging in the shooting spree, Muhammad shot a security guard dead at a Motel 6 on April 13.
[17][18][19][20] At approximately 11:00 p.m. on April 13, an unarmed security guard working at a Motel 6 in central Fresno, California observed a man, Kori Ali Muhammad, visiting a woman who had checked into one of the rooms.
Since motel policy mandated all visitors to provide identification at the office, the guard went to the room, with an armed coworker, to inform the pair of this.
[24][16][25][26] The woman, who had fled back to the room, was taken into custody on a felony accessory charge after attempting to take evidence from the crime scene and refusing to identify the gunman to police.
[27] According to investigators, the gunman escaped police detection at the motel by fleeing south to a nearby 7-Eleven and hiding out on the store rooftop, where he watched officers interview witnesses and waited for them to leave.
He used the shop's Wi-Fi to watch a broadcast by Fresno ABC affiliate KFSN-TV that identified him as a suspect in the security guard's murder.
The driver managed to drive away unharmed and took Randalls to the Fresno Police Department headquarters, where he alerted officers.
[23] Seconds after shooting four rounds into the PG&E truck on N. Van Ness and mortally wounding Randalls, Muhammad proceeded south to Mildreda, turning west.
Muhammad then turned onto N. Fulton St heading south, where he fired once at a vehicle containing a woman, her adult daughter, and her four-year-old granddaughter, but stopped shooting after realizing they were Latino.
[40] Muhammad followed Jackson, who was the heaviest and oldest of the three white men, into the parking lot of a Catholic Charities USA building.
[32] According to Chief Jerry Dyer, the gun was wrapped in clothing and picked up by a Hispanic male who had met up with Muhammad shortly after the shootings and then fled the scene.
[16] Several streets and county government buildings were put on lockdown during the shootings, with people being ordered to shelter in place.
[32] A federal law enforcement official said the shootings did not bear the hallmarks of a terrorist attack and appeared to be more of a "local, criminal matter".
[9] Chief Dyer said that Kori Muhammad, who is black, told police he decided to become infamous for killing many white people after realizing he was wanted in the Motel 6 shooting.
[29][48] Mayor Lee Brand offered his condolences to the victims' families and called April 18 "a sad day for us all".
[53] Muhammad also attended classes at Fresno City College, but according to a classmate, he would often not show up for weeks at a time and accuse his instructors of being racist.
[10] Muhammad had a criminal history dated from 1997 to 2004, consisting of arrests on weapons, drugs, forgery, and false imprisonment charges, as well as making terrorist threats.
[9] In September, Muhammad sought an insanity defense and underwent a psychiatric evaluation after his lawyer claimed his client was "suffering from hallucinations, paranoia and psychosis.
[32][56] Muhammad made posts about the murders of five Dallas police officers, in which he praised the shooter Micah Xavier Johnson.
[41] Muhammad's father described his son's belief that there was an ongoing war between whites and blacks, and that "a battle was about to take place.
"[9] He later said that he attempted to warn Muhammad's probation officer about his son's hatred of white people and his plans of killing them, but believes no one followed up on his report.
[57] In a phone interview with an ABC News affiliate in downtown Fresno Jail, Kori Ali Muhammad spoke about his motives for the killings.
Muhammad was initially wanted by Fresno police for the death of Carl Williams, a security guard he killed a few days before his shooting spree.
[30] After Muhammad's sentencing by the judge in the murder trial, statements were read in the courtroom by family members and friends of the victims.
[18] According to The Daily Beast, Muhammad's posts indicated a support of the Moorish Science Temple of America, an African American organization associated with the sovereign citizen movement, which advocated few beliefs similar to those of mainstream Islam.
[8] Brian Levin, director of Cal State San Bernardino's Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, said that Muhammad's social media posts made multiple references to terms used by the Nation of Islam (NOI),[6] a black supremacist organization labeled as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League.
[61][9] Muhammad's relatives said that he "became involved" with the NOI when he was younger, but did not clarify what kind of role the group played in his life during his imprisonment and after his release.
As a result, criminal proceedings were suspended and the judge ordered a psychiatric evaluation for Muhammad, setting bail at $2.6 million.
[26][65][66][67] His next court appearance was scheduled on May 12,[26] but was postponed to June 1 to give psychologists more time to prepare Muhammad's mental health report.