A 21-year-old New Jersey man
accused of kidnapping his 3-month-old daughter and throwing her
off a bridge is described by his father as a devout Muslim who
prayed regularly and is said to have immediately visited mosques
and confessed to an imam following his crime.
Shamsid-Din Abdur-Raheem, an
aspiring lawyer and student at Richard Stockton College,
reportedly held a leadership position in the Muslim Student
Association at Stockton, according to college senior Zaw Win.
The group's member and officer list has been disabled on its
website.
He was also an intern in
Washington, D.C., with the juveniles section of the Office of
the Attorney General, according to March 2009 press release from
Stockton College. He was fired after only a month for missing
work and not completing assignments. He lashed out during his
termination, and security personnel escorted him out of the
building.
Abdur-Raheem allegedly forced
his way into the baby's maternal grandmother's home at 4 p.m. on
Feb. 16, punched the 60-year-old woman in the face and choked
her. He took 3-month old Zara Malani-lin Abdur, and the
grandmother chased him outside. She threw herself on the hood of
a Dodge Caravan as Abdur-Raheem climbed into the passenger side,
clutching his daughter, New Jersey's Star-Ledger reports.
According to some reports, he left with an unidentified man at
the wheel, though other accounts say he was the only man in the
van.
The baby's mother, Venetta
Benjamin, has full custody of the baby and is not married to
Abdur-Raheem. He had reportedly threatened to harm Benjamin in
the week prior to the abduction because she didn't want to marry
him. Benjamin was filing a restraining order against him at the
time he abducted his daughter.
After arriving at the Driscoll
Bridge and dropping his daughter into the icy cold water of the
Raritan River, Abdur-Raheem is said to have immediately driven
to see Imam Amin Muhammad at the Masjid Mohammed in Atlantic
City, and then to Masjid un-Nur in Camden County.
His father, Muhsin Abdur-Raheem,
described his son as a devout Muslim and said he prayed often.
He said his son sought counsel from an imam at Masjid Muhammad
following the abduction. Shamsid-Din Abdur-Raheem then visited
his father, who called the police around 8 p.m.
Authorities stopped
Abdur-Raheem's red 2002 Dodge Caravan in Winslow Township but
did not find the baby with him.
Police say Shamsid-Din
Abdur-Raheem told them he threw the baby off the Garden State
Parkway's Driscoll Bridge. He has been charged with kidnapping
and attempted murder, aggravated assault and child endangerment.
The kidnapping charge carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in
state prison, and the attempted murder charge carries a maximum
sentence of 20 years in state prison
Despite the alleged confession,
he pleaded not guilty during his arraignment today.
"We're all distraught about
this," his father told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "We're
faithful people. We don't condone any kind of violence."
Despite an exhaustive search,
dozens of emergency personnel have been unable to find the baby.
Authorities say her chances for survival are slim at this point.
Asked if he believes she may
survive, the father said, "I hope it's a miracle."