Christian extremist shoots Muslim Man

FBI OPENS PROBE INTO SHOOTING ON STRIP - TOPJason Morton, Tuscaloosa News, 2/1/06http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060301/NEWS/603010350&SearchID=73237127377735The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced Tuesday that it is opening an investigation into last week's shooting of a Middle Eastern man on The Strip.Special Agent Raymond Zicarelli, spokesman for the FBI office in Birmingham, said findings of the probe would be forwarded to the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Unit in Washington."We have initiated an investigation to make a determination as to whether it was a violation of any of the civil right statutes," Zicarelli said.The FBI had been monitoring the shooting of 27-year-old Nabil Chagri since almost the beginning.Chagri was shot in the back of the head Thursday night as he sat with his wife and two children in his minivan outside the Quick Grill on The Strip.Jason Michael Gardner, 23, is accused of pulling the trigger on the .22-caliber rifle. Investigators have said the motive is unclear, but appears to be the result of an argument that Gardner had with the owner of Quick Grill earlier in the evening.Gardner, who is awaiting a judge's decision from his bond reduction hearing, was being held Tuesday night at the Tuscaloosa County Jail without bail.He faces charges of attempted murder and shooting into an occupied vehicle.Tuscaloosa attorneys Jim and Mary Turner, who are representing Gardner, declined to comment on the case Tuesday.Deedra Abboud, the executive director of the Muslim American Society's Freedom Foundation, traveled from her office in Arizona to Tuscaloosa this weekend to consult with Chagri, his family and the Tuscaloosa Muslim community.Abboud said Chagri was discharged from DCH Regional Medical Center on Sunday."Everybody, including the doctors, are astounded that he's alive, much less able to be released," she said.Abboud said she had no doubt that race was a motivating factor in the shooting."And I think that the limited evidence and testimony that was submitted yesterday during the bond hearing also suggested that it was racially motivated," Abboud said. (MORE)-----