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Suspect in Hate-Fueled Fresno Killings Says 'White Supremacy Has to Die'

Kori Muhammad admitted to killing three people in Fresno on Tuesday and described the crimes as acts of vengeance against white supremacy.
IMAGE: Kori Ali Muhammad
Kori Ali Muhammad in an arrest mug Tuesday.Fresno Police Department

The black man accused of a hate-fueled killing spree that left three white people dead in Fresno, California, admitted the crimes on Saturday and described them as acts of vengeance against white supremacy.

In an interview with NBC affiliate KSEE, Kori Ali Muhammad, 39, also admitted to the April 13 killing of a security guard at a Motel 6.

Muhammad told the station that the guard, Carl Williams, 25, was disrespecting a friend, so he shot him, then fled.

When Muhammad learned that he was being sought in Williams' death, he considered surrendering, the station reported.

"I was actually going to turn myself in," he told the station. "Then I started thinking about the missing black women and children, started thinking about Flint, Michigan, started thinking about [the] crack cocaine epidemic, started thinking about the injustices and atrocities my people go through. That's why I snapped."

He added: "I wasn't thinking like, I'm going to kill, kill, kill. ... White supremacy has to die, and people who benefit from white supremacy are white men."

Muhammad is accused of firing 17 shots in less than one minute near Catholic Charities on Tuesday, killing Pacific Gas and Electric worker Zackary David Randalls, 34, and two Catholic Charities clients: Mark James Gassett, 37, and David Martin Jackson, 58.

Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said last week that Muhammad, who laughed during interviews with authorities, carried out the killings because he felt that white people kept black people down.

"Kori Muhammad is not a terrorist," Dyer said last week. "But he is a racist, and he is filled with hate."

Related: Fresno Shooter Shouts ‘Let Black People Go!’ While Entering Courtroom

Muhammad told KSEE that he'd given his life "for the ultimate freedom of my people" and said he regretted firing at a passing car whose occupants were two Hispanic women.

"I am glad none of them got hit," Muhammad said. "I probably couldn't live with myself if I hit the woman and child. I had no intentions of hurting women and children."

During a court appearance Friday, a judge ordered Muhammad to undergo a mental evaluation.

Muhammad has been charged with murdering Williams and is being held in isolation at the Fresno County Jail in lieu of $2.6 million bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned in the other killings on May 12.