Suspect in Jewish Federation shootings recently baptized

RICHLAND -- Naveed Haq, now widely portrayed as a Muslim American so angry at Israel that he shot up a Jewish charity in Seattle, had recently converted to Christianity.

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His conversion is perhaps the most startling contradiction in a puzzling life.

He had a degree in electrical engineering and was the son of a successful engineer. But he couldn't hold a job and recently worked as a security guard and retail clerk in the Seattle area.

His father was a founding member of the Islamic center here. But the son was rarely seen at a local mosque for more than 10 years.

Haq, 30, told a ministry leader that he saw too much anger in Islam and wanted to find a new beginning in Christianity. He converted to Christianity, but, as with many other endeavors in his life, drifted away from the faith.

Acquaintances said he never seemed to be the fanatic religious extremist he played out on Friday. Instead some think his anger was really the result of problems in his personal and professional life.


	Haq

"Naveed had the profile of the guy who just couldn't get things together," said Erik Neilsen, a Richland resident who let Haq live with him for three months in 2004. Neilsen said he thinks several problems compounded for Haq, and he just exploded.

"I wish I could have done something about it. I look back in retrospect and say 'Is there anything I could have done?' "

Last winter, Haq began attending a weekly men's group meeting at the home of a men's ministry leader with the Word of Faith Center, a non-denominational, evangelical church in Kennewick.

The group's leader, Albert Montelongo, said Haq started studying the Bible. In December, he was baptized by Montelongo. The ceremony brought tears to Haq's eyes, Montelongo said.

He said Haq appeared to accept his new faith, though he knew that he would be offending his own family and its deeply rooted culture. His father, Mian Haq, was among the founders of the Islamic Center of the Tri-Cities in Richland, a place of worship for about 300 Muslims.

Montelongo said Haq seemed passionate and often boasted about his education. But he seemed depressed by the tension that had grown between him and his family. And Montelongo said Haq talked about suffering from bipolar disorder, but that he seemed to improve in how he coped with anger.

A few months after he was baptized, Haq stopped attending the men's group meetings. Montelongo last heard from Haq in a message that said he was going to Seattle to find a job. He said he tried to call Haq several times but never reached him.

Then on Friday, Montelongo said he saw the news about the shooting in Seattle and thought the man in police custody looked like Haq.

"I don't understand that. That throws me off from everything he was doing here," Montelongo said. "That blew me away."

"We'll be praying for him and everybody that was hurt in what happened, and everybody that's involved in it," Montelongo said.

A neighbor of Haq's parents told the Tri-City Herald that Haq expressed anger at Jews, having convinced himself that the Jewish community controls the nation's media and economic system. The neighbor, Caleb Hales, also said Haq expressed an interest in the Mormon faith.

At the Islamic Center of Tri-Cities, a senior member and family friend, Muhammad Kaleem Ullah, said that Haq stopped attending regularly after he graduated from Richland High School in 1994. He said Haq would attend off and on while visiting his parents and that he surprised members at a Friday prayer service two weeks ago with a visit.

"We just shook hands and he walked away," he said.

After high school, Haq enrolled in dentistry school at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., something his father encouraged. But after about four years of study, Haq decided to quit school and return home. That created some tension between father and son, Ullah said.

After that, Haq went to Washington State University, where he earned a degree in electrical engineering.

In March, Haq was arrested on a lewd conduct charge at a Tri-Cities mall. It was Ullah he called from jail because he was too embarrassed to call his own family. Ullah said he felt it wasn't right to keep secrets from Haq's parents, so he informed them.

He said Haq's family was devastated by the news. "There is no other word to describe it," he said.

Up until a few years ago, Haq's family lived in a brick-and-clay-tiled home in a south Richland neighborhood. They moved a few years ago after building a larger home on a bluff overlooking the Columbia River outside of Pasco, but their former home remains up for sale.

Some neighbors said they occasionally saw Haq staying at the family's old home by himself. Christine Wikstrand, who lives across the street, said she saw Haq there Wednesday or Thursday night, the latter less than 24 hours before the shootings. He loaded a bicycle and lawn mower into his pickup and drove off, she said.

"I didn't think anything of it because he has been there before," she said.

Other neighbors such as Jim Jarrett recalled Haq's parents as nice, yet private people. They talked on occasion and exchanged fruit from their yards. Mian Haq would give Jarrett and his wife, Marlene, prunes and plums from the tree in their yard. They would offer peaches and tomatoes, Jarrett said.

Haq apparently moved back and forth between the Tri-Cities and Seattle while he was looking for employment.

At one point, he told Neilsen, the friend with whom he lived for a few months in 2004, that he was working as a security guard at a Seattle-area department store. Neilsen said he'd lost touch with Haq until about six weeks ago, when he got an e-mail from Haq saying his friend had started work at a Home Depot in Everett.

Neilsen, a Richland engineer, said Haq seemed to lack the ability to focus. Neilsen said Haq decided he no longer wanted to pay rent and moved out. He talked about having no money and temporarily stayed at a Kennewick apartment. Haq told him he wanted to live in his family's house while it was on the real estate market but that his father wouldn't agree to the idea.

He said Haq told him about converting to Christianity and that he attended a few meetings with him. He said Haq talked about taking medication for his mental disorder.

He also said Haq told him that he had called off a traditional, arranged marriage in Pakistan and had mentioned plans to change his name.

Neilsen saw Haq as a loner who was confused about his life, but he never thought of Haq as a monster.

"I've had conversations with him. He'd come over and we'd have a cigar in my backyard and have a nice talk. And all of a sudden, it's like, what happened? What happened to you?"

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