\u201cA Muslim leader in the city said Mr Ali did not represent Islam\u201d
\nCalifornia
\nThree white men were killed and another wounded when a black gunman opened fire in Fresno, California, in a suspected race attack, police have said.
\nKori Ali shot 16 rounds in 90 seconds in the shooting spree on Tuesday, said Police Chief Jerry Dyer.
\nHe shouted \u201cGod is greatest\u201d in Arabic when arrested but this was a hate crime not terrorism, Mr Dyer believed.
\nMr Ali, 39, was also wanted for the murder of a security guard outside a motel in the city last week.
\nHe now faces four counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder.
\nA Muslim leader in the city said Mr Ali did not represent Islam.
\nWhy America remains segregated
\nAll four victims were white men, and one of them was shot sitting in a car. Media in the city named him as Zackary Randalls, a 34-year-old father of two who was on his first day in his new job as a utility worker.
\nThe suspect had indicated on social media that he hated white people and expressed anti-government views, police said.
\n\u201cHe wanted to kill as many people as he could and that\u2019s what he set out to do,\u201d said Mr Dyer.
\n\u201cThis was a random act of violence. These were unprovoked attacks by an individual who was intent on carrying out homicides today.\u201d
\nMr Dyer added that Tuesday\u2019s attack \u201chas nothing to do with terrorism in spite of the statements that he [Kori Ali Muhammad] made\u201d.
\n\u201cHe did clarify that the reason he had made that statement was that in the event that anything did happen to him that he was in fact pledging his allegiance to God for protection.\u201d
\nHow Fresno\u2019s Muslim community reacted
\nThe most recent statistics compiled by the University of Southern California\u2019s Center for Religion and Civic Culture showed that Fresno, a city of just over 500,000 people, had a Muslim population of just over 1,800 in 2000.
\nIn a statement on Facebook, the Islamic Cultural Center of Fresno condemned the attack, saying: \u201cThe phrase Allahu Akbar, or God is Great, is a prayer of peace for 1.8 billion Muslims around the world.\u201d
\nThe centre\u2019s Imam, Seyed Ali Ghazvini, said Mr Muhammad was not known to them.
\n\u201cThis individual does not represent our faith or our community,\u201d he told the Fresno Bee newspaper. \u201cThis individual does not represent your Muslim neighbour, your Muslim classmate or your co-worker. The Muslim community in the Valley are working hard for the well-being of our society and country.\u201d
\nThe shooting began around 10:45 local time near the headquarters for Catholic Charities.
\nWitnesses said they saw a man carrying a large handgun, which he reloaded several times between shots.
\nMr Muhammad\u2019s father later told the Media that his son believed he was part of an ongoing war between whites and blacks and that \u201ca battle was about to take place\u201d. He went by the nickname Black Jesus.
\nThe latest shooting is also likely to reignite fresh debates about gun control in the US. More than 30,000 people are killed by gun violence across the country each year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cA Muslim leader in the city said Mr Ali did not represent Islam\u201d California Three white men were killed and another wounded when a black gunman opened fire in Fresno, California, in a suspected race attack, police have said. Kori Ali shot 16 rounds in 90 seconds in the shooting spree on Tuesday, said Police […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n