Narrative about fatal attack at mosque changes; man shot by IRC deputies at Sam's Club arrested
INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The suspect in a Seminole County homicide at an Islamic center who Indian River County sheriff's deputies shot in the Sam's Club parking lot Thursday has been arrested on a murder warrant out of Seminole County.
Recent bookings at the St. Lucie County Jail show Ahmed Raslan, 38, was arrested Friday shortly before 4 a.m.
He was taken Thursday to HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in Fort Pierce where he underwent surgery after three shots from deputies struck him in the abdomen and chest area, Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers said.
Friday, he was stable at the hospital and possibly could need more surgery, said Debbie Carson, spokeswoman for the Indian River County Sheriff's Office. She said he was arrested at the hospital and detectives are still trying to talk with him there.
While the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office leads the death investigation, Carson said Indian River County detectives are still working to determine the degree of local involvement in the case.
What happened at Husseini Islamic Center
The circumstances surrounding the fatal attack at the Husseini Islamic Center in Seminole County near Sanford changed late Thursday from earlier in the day, with new information from investigators there.
Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma now says the assailant “may have been deranged and believing exactly what he was doing,” he told WFTV-9, an ABC-affiliated television station in Orlando. The newscast is on the sheriff's website, and readers are directed to it as his public briefing.
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He said on the Sheriff's Office Facebook page investigators found Raslan had been making irrational statements online and believed the mosque was his residence.
WFTV-9 said the sheriff reported the attack was not random as he had said earlier in the day, and that Raslan chose the mosque because he thought he was a descendant of Julius Caesar, the building belonged to Caesar and he was there to defend it.
He fatally attacked a 59-year-old maintenance worker at the facility and then drove off in the maintenance worker’s vehicle, Lemma said. The maintenance worker was found dead around 8:45 a.m. Thursday.
“We had the license plate because we knew it was the victim's vehicle,” Lemma said Thursday. “We entered that into our technology systems and ultimately received an alert on that license plate in Indian River County.”
Indian River County sheriff’s deputies made a traffic stop in the Sam’s Club parking lot, where, after he did not follow a command and attempted to reach inside the van, deputies shot him.
Lemma initially said the maintenance worker had been training the assailant for a couple of weeks and there had been friction between them.
Late Thursday he said the two did not know each other. He said the maintenance man likely arrived at work, noticed the building had been burglarized and encountered Raslan, who is thought to have attacked the maintenance worker with a shovel.
More: Deputy shoots man wanted in Seminole County in Sam's Club parking lot in Indian River County
“And you can just imagine for one moment, if it wasn't for the heroic efforts of our victim trying to confront this threat, struggle there and prevent any of those other people who may have been coming in just minutes later, from experiencing a similar fate,” Lemma said.
Thursday evening, Flowers announced the Indian River County Sheriff's Office joint terrorism task force was involved, and investigators were cautiously working to dismantle the van, not only for evidence, but for any danger posed by any potential explosive device. He said he was notified of concerns the man had, or had staged, explosives in the van.
Carson said no explosives were in the van, but she couldn’t say what, if anything such as weapons, were found in the van.
“It’s still a very active investigation,” she said.
Deputies names will not be released
Carson said the names of the deputies involved in the shooting are not being released, citing Marsy’s Law, passed in 2018.
Introduced in memory of a young woman murdered by her ex-boyfriend, Marsy’s Law was created to offer crime victims a slate of rights, including protecting them and their families from harassment by their attackers.
Some law enforcement officials have interpreted the statute as applying to any victim, as well as to law enforcement officers being entitled to privacy and having their identity protected.
Will Greenlee is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow Will on Twitter @OffTheBeatTweet or reach him by phone at 772-267-7926. E-mail him at will.greenlee@tcpalm.com
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This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Seminole murder suspect shot by IRC deputies at Sam's Club arrested
