By Chuck Hustmyre
October 16, 2007
DEARBORN, Mich.(Crime Library) — Houssein Zorkot just wanted people to think he was tough. That's why he donned dark clothing, painted his face black, and crept through the shadows of Hemlock Park carrying a loaded AK-47 assault rifle. At least that's what he told police detectives and FBI agents hours after his Sept. 8 arrest, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
200.jpg) |
| Dearborn Jihadist Houssein Zorkot |
According to the source, who asked not to be identified, Houssein Zorkot, 26, claimed his stepmother had been spreading rumors about him throughout Dearborn's large Arab population, rumors that hindered his ability to find a wife.
Although Houssein Zorkot refused to give investigators any specifics about the rumors, the source said, they may have involved allegations that he is a homosexual.
"That's the worst thing you can be in the Arab community," the source told Crime Library.
Sharia law, the strict code of Islamic justice that many Muslims want imposed in the United States and other Western democracies, calls for the brutal execution — usually stoning to death — of homosexuals. During his recent U.S. visit, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proclaimed, "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals, like in your country."
Houssein Zorkot's parents divorced in 2004 and his mother moved back to Lebanon, the source said. When Zorkot's father married a woman several years younger than him, and only a few years older than Houssein Zorkot, it touched off a running feud between son and stepmother.
 |
| Dearborn Jihadist Houssein Zorkot |
When asked by investigators what he had been doing in Hemlock Park just before his arrest, Zorkot claimed he had been wandering around with his AK-47 hoping to be spotted. He said he wanted word to get back to his family and friends that he was a tough guy.
"It was a crappy answer," the source said. "He knew it, but it was easy and he stuck to it."
Houssein Zorkot also told investigators he became interested in the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah during the 2006 Israeli-Lebanese war. His personal Web site, Zorkot.org, was devoted to Hezbollah and contained snapshots taken during a recent trip to Lebanon of Zorkot standing beside Hezbollah rockets and posing in front of pictures of Hezbollah and other militant Islamic leaders.
Just hours before police arrested Zorkot and seized his brand new AK-47 and other military-style gear, he posted a message on his Web site that read, "The start of my personal jihad (in the U.S.)."
Zorkot's words and actions seem at odds with his excuse that he just wanted to be seen with a gun to counter the rumors his stepmother had been spreading about him.
 |
| Hemlock Park Map |
It was dusk when witnesses spotted Zorkot carrying a rifle and walking along the railroad track that cuts diagonally across the west side of the small park. The setting sun still provided enough light to shoot by, while the creeping darkness made spotting a black-clad figure difficult. The slight rise of the railroad track offered high ground and cover, and the treeline running beside it offered concealment.
Houssein Zorkot's 2007 Ford Explorer sat backed into a space in a nearby parking lot, positioned for a possible quick getaway and with its license plate concealed from view. The parking lot exits onto Hemlock Street, two blocks from Schaefer Road, a major north-south thoroughfare.
If his intention was to launch a sniper attack in Hemlock Park, Houssein Zorkot would have been hard pressed to find a better spot to shoot from. It offered everything a sniper needs — cover, concealment, escape.
Zorkot's choice of clothing also suggested a desire to get away, hinting at a possible campaign of terror instead of a suicidal mass shooting.
"I've wrestled with this a thousand times in my mind," the source said. "I have to believe that he was going to do something. Why else would he have the AK-47 and his face painted black?"
If a series of sniper attacks was what Houssein Zorkot had in mind, he would not have been the first Muslim extremist in recent years to combine the mobility of a car and the deadly accuracy of a military-style assault rifle to spread terror in an urban environment.
 |
| Washington, D.C. Sniper Lee Boyd Malvo |
Over a period of three weeks in October 2002, 41-year-old John Allen Muhammad, a member of the Nation of Islam, and his 17-year-old sidekick, Lee Boyd Malvo, used a Bushmaster .223 caliber rifle and a Chevrolet Caprice to terrorize the Washington, D.C. area with a series of spectacular sniper attacks that left 10 people dead and three wounded.
Houssein Zorkot, whom police charged with three state firearms violations, is being held on a $1 million cash bail pending a psychological evaluation to determine if he is competent to stand trial. His next scheduled court appearance is Nov. 9.
default
increase
decrease
email
print