TAOS COUNTY, New Mexico — It's a complicated, complex and confounding story of alleged child abuse and terrorism-type training, going back years with roots in Atlanta.
Now prosecutors are revealing that Siraj Wahhaj of Atlanta, who is suspected of training children to carry out violent, armed attacks in the U.S., put himself through a crash-course on firearms with Atlanta Firearms Training back in 2015.
In New Mexico, four of the adult suspects got out of jail on bond Tuesday, but not Wahhaj. He's wanted in Georgia, accused of taking his own toddler this past December from Clayton County to the compound.
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Siraj Wahhaj is from Metro Atlanta and is suspected by prosecutors in New Mexico of being what they call a Muslim extremist.
Court documents shows Wahhaj possibly began preparing himself for those violent acts three years ago, in Atlanta.
Photos: New Mexico suspects appear for bond hearing
The documents show Wahhaj signed up with Atlanta Firearms Training in January, 2015 and in quick succession over the next several weeks, took the basic pistol class, the defensive pistol class and then the AR-15 class.
That's all perfectly legal, but, according to prosecutors, the owner of Atlanta Firearms Training was so worried about Wahhaj that he reported him to Atlanta Joint Terrorism Task Force, the FBI in Atlanta in April 2015.
Why?
Because, according to the court documents, ever since the owner opened his business in 2009, no one had ever taken that many firearms training classes that quickly, and he was suspicious of Wahhaj.
Then, earlier this year, prosecutors say Wahhaj and four others moved to their dusty and desolate New Mexico compound along with 11 children where they allegedly trained them to carry out future schools shootings. Their defense attorneys deny that claim.
Police found the remains of a twelfth child at the compound, who investigators say may be Wahhaj’s own son, Abdul, who would be turning 4 years old this month; Wahhaj allegedly took Abdul from Abdul’s mother -- Wahhaj's then-wife -- in Clayton County this past December, when he was still 3 years old.
So, an Atlanta firearms training school, whose co-owner writes often about the need for people to prepare themselves in the war on terrorism, ends up training an alleged Muslim extremist who prosecutors believe was planning terrorist-type attacks.
As for the co-owner, he told 11Alive that authorities have advised him not to talk while the case against Wahhaj is pending.
