Father: Compound suspect not radical
Landlord says he previously reported wanted man’s presence to law enforcement
AMALIA — The owner of a remote piece of property in Taos County near the Colorado border, where renters built a makeshift compound, questioned Friday why authorities did not search the site sooner for a missing boy.
Jason Badger said he reported to law enforcement in late spring he had met the child’s father at the site and that the man was wanted in Georgia for kidnapping his young son. Authorities believe the remains of a child found on the property earlier this week are those of Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, who would have turned 4 on Monday.
While touring the ramshackle living quarters littered with
ammunition, diesel cans, used diapers and other garbage, Badger also said Friday he believed he saw the missing boy by his father’s side in January, wearing a hooded jacket.
Badger said in an interview that he learned through an online search this spring that Siraj Ibn Wahhaj was wanted in the disappearance of then-3-year-old Abdul-Ghani, and reported his earlier encounter to law enforcement authorities in New Mexico and Georgia — and eventually to the FBI.
Authorities did not search the compound for the severely disabled boy until last week in a raid that resulted in the arrest of Siraj Ibn Wahhaj and four other adults on child neglect charges after 11 other children were found at the compound. Authorities said the children, ranging in age from 1-15, were hungry and dressed in rags. They were taken into state custody.
A second search at the site Monday uncovered a child’s body that hasn’t been positively identified by a state medical examiner, although Wahhaj’s father, a Muslim cleric who leads a wellknown New York City mosque and also is named Siraj Wahhaj, said this week the body is his grandson.
“If they knew about it, and then that kid died in that time frame when they knew, somebody has to be held accountable,” Badger said.
Taos County Sheriff ’s Office spokesman Steve Fullendorf downplayed Badger’s criticism of the investigation, saying Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe did everything possible under the law.
“Mr. Badger doesn’t have to adhere to those same restrictions,” Hogrefe said. “He wants to have his 15 minutes of fame and that’s fine.”
The FBI has not commented on the case, referring all questions to the sheriff.
Hogrefe has said the FBI put the New Mexico compound under surveillance in recent months and took photographs, but he could not initially get a warrant to enter because the images collected did not show the boy or his father.
That changed when a note was forwarded to Georgia authorities saying children inside the compound were starving, Hogrefe said.
The elder Siraj Wahhaj told reporters the tip had gone to law enforcement through him. His daughter, one of the five adults living at the site, sent the note to a man in Atlanta, asking for food. That man then notified Wahhaj, who said he decided to send food and contact police.
Three of the adults at the compound were his children, Wahhaj said: Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 40, and two daughters — 38-year-old Hujrah Wahhaj and 35-yearold Subhannah Wahhaj. The others were his daughter-in-law Jany Leveille, 35, and son-in-law Lucas Morton, 40.
The imam said the 11 children removed from the site are either his biological grandchildren or a part of his family through marriage.
By local authorities’ accounts, the five adults at the compound were “extremist of the Muslim belief ” who trained youth to use firearms and carry out future school shootings.
But for the imam, the son he knew before losing touch with him in the past year was not “radical.” He may have been “high-strung,” the elder Siraj Wahhaj said of his son, but he never believed his son was extreme enough to kill anyone.
And his two daughters who lived at the site were the “sweetest kinds of people,” he said. One was a public speaker and the other a writer.
“This doesn’t seem like them. We know them,” Wahhaj said. “Muslims all over the world, those who know him, they said this is strange.”
Speaking at his Brooklyn mosque, the elder Wahhaj said he didn’t understand why his son took the family and disappeared into the desert, but suggested a psychiatric disorder was to blame.
The three siblings and two other adults have been charged with child abuse stemming from the alleged neglect of the 11 children taken into state custody. All five adults are being held without bond.
Morton is facing a count of “harboring a felon” on accusations he refused to tell authorities the younger Siraj Wahhaj’s location when authorities raided the compound.
Wahhaj, who authorities say was eventually found with multiple firearms, including a semi-automatic rifle, is wanted on a warrant in Georgia in the disappearance of his son.
Prosecutors said Abdul-ghani was taken from his mother in December in Jonesboro, Ga., near Atlanta.
A warrant says the boy suffers seizures and requires constant attention because of a lack of oxygen and blood flow at birth.
In an interview with WSB-TV in Atlanta, the boy’s mother called for “justice” as she described how her life had been taken from her after her son was abducted by his father. She said that was out of character for him.
She and Siraj Ibn Wahhaj had been married almost 14 years, and she said he disappeared after saying he was taking the boy to a park.
The elder Siraj Wahhaj echoed her call for justice for his grandson.
“Whoever is responsible, then that person should be held accountable,” Wahhaj said.
Prosecutors have filed no charges in response to accusations they outlined in court documents this week that children at the compound were being trained with firearms to commit school shootings. That claim came from a foster parent of one of the 11 children removed from the compound who reported the allegation to authorities.
The elder Wahhaj said he had no knowledge of any such training.
“It sounds crazy. But I don’t know,” he said. “I make no judgments yet because we don’t know.”