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Alleged jihadist charged with killing 4 in Washington, N.J.

"All these lives are taken every single day by America, by this government. So a life for a life," said accused killer Ali Muhammad Brown.

By Frances Burns
Young Afghan refugees scavenging in a garbage dump in Pakistan in 2013. Ali Muhammad Brown allegedly said he committed four "just kills" in the United States in response to U.S. actions in Afghanistan and elsewhere. UPI/Matiullah.
Young Afghan refugees scavenging in a garbage dump in Pakistan in 2013. Ali Muhammad Brown allegedly said he committed four "just kills" in the United States in response to U.S. actions in Afghanistan and elsewhere. UPI/Matiullah. | License Photo

SEATTLE, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- A man now charged with four homicides in New Jersey and the Seattle area claimed they were "just kills" in response to U.S. actions against Muslims, a prosecutor said.

Ali Muhammad Brown, 29, was charged Wednesday in Washington State with the killing in Skyway in June. He is also suspected of killing two men in Seattle.

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Brown is currently being held in New Jersey in lieu of $5 million bail. He and two other men allegedly shot Brendan Tevlin, 19, a college student, after pulling up next to him at a stoplight in West Orange on June 25.

After his arrest in New Jersey, Brown allegedly told investigators he shot four men in response to the U.S. killing of Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, prosecutors said in charging documents. He allegedly described them as "just kills."

"All these lives are taken every single day by America, by this government. So a life for a life," Brown was quoted as saying.

Dan Satterberg, the prosecutor in King County in Washington, said that investigators in Essex County in New Jersey have determined that a gun found on Brown was used in all four shootings. Brown was allegedly the shooter in the Tevlin case.

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"We are in communication with the prosecutors in Essex County regarding their murder and robbery charges," Satterberg said in a statement. "I expect that eventually Brown will come back to King County to face the three aggravated murder charges we have filed, but precisely when that will be remains unclear at this point."

Brown served a federal prison sentence for bank fraud. Federal prosecutors said he and other men were raising money to support terrorist activities in Somalia.

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