Fresno shooting spree suspect had criminal history, said he joined gang at 9

FRESNO, Calif. - The man suspected of killing three white men in a racially motivated shooting spree in Fresno said he joined a gang in Sacramento when he was 9 and got involved with the black liberation movement at 14.

Kori Muhammad talked about his upbringing in a video interview published in 2015 on the website of Community Media Access Collaborative, where he was part of a media training program.

He said he joined the Nation of Islam and in 1995, when he was 17, and attended the Million Man March in D.C. as a lieutenant. He also said that Martin Luther King “wanted to hug their hands, and get along with them, and lick their feet and they still killed him.”

Muhammad has a criminal history dating back to age 13, including two arrests as a teen for possessing a gun in school. Court records show he was arrested in Washington state in 2004 after acknowledging he shot a gun outside his apartment.

Prosecutors said he left the state and the case was later dismissed after they declined to extradite him from a federal prison.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons says Muhammad was incarcerated at a federal penitentiary from October 2006 to September 2011 after being convicted of possessing cocaine with intent to distribute.