US News
Muslim charged in Jewish centre shootings
By DPA
Jul 30, 2006, 19:00 GMT

Washington - A Muslim man who allegedly killed a woman and wounded five others inside a Jewish community centre in Seattle, Washington gained entry by holding a teenaged girl at gunpoint, police said Saturday.

A judge on Saturday ordered Naveed Afzal Haq, 30, held on 30 million dollars bail on suspicion of first-degree murder and five charges of attempted murder.

He was arrested Friday inside the offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. Haq was described as a loner who grew up in the Seattle area with a history of mental problems.

Police said that he shouted anti-Israeli slurs during the shooting and was motivated by anger over the ongoing Israeli offensive in Lebanon. He is believed to have acted alone, but authorities in Washington state in the Pacific North-west boosted security at both Jewish and Muslim sites as a precaution.

Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske revealed Saturday that Haq hid in the lobby of the office building before putting a handgun to a 13-year-old girl and forcing her to take him inside.

'She could not have kept him out,' the Seattle Times quoted Kerlikowske as saying. 'She was a hostage.'

Haq was armed with two semiautomatic handguns and carried ammunition with which to reload and 'immediately started firing at people' inside the office, Kerlikowske said.

The girl was apparently unhurt.

The shooting left Pamela Waechter, 58, dead. She was described by the newspaper as a convert who continued to practise Judaism after divorcing her Jewish husband.

All five of the wounded women remained hospitalized Saturday. Threw who had been in critical condition were upgraded to serious, the Seattle Times reported.