High School Graduate From Jersey Shore Now ISIS Commander

A recent graduate of a Jersey Shore high school is now an ISIS commander, according to reports.

Zulfi Hoxha, 25, graduated from Atlantic City High School in 2010, according to NBC4 New York. His Albanian immigrant family owned a pizza shop in Margate, and he attended a mosque where "he hated people," his mother told NBC.

He went to Syria and goes by the name "Abu Hamza al-Amriki," an ISIS soldier, according to his mother and court documents used in another recent terrorism case involving an American. "I am upset," his mother Ltefaji Hoxha told NBC at her house in Margate.

Hoxha, 25, was identified in filings for the federal case against David "Daoud" Wright, who was convicted last year on terrorism charges and is serving 28 years in prison. The Atlantic first identified Hoxha as Abu Hamza al-Amriki.

The news that Hoxha once lived in Margate stunned local residents and has hurt business for Pierre’s Pizza current owner, Richie Hafizi, who is not related to or associated with Hoxha, according to The Press of Atlantic City.

“I have a family to feed, and this has hurt me a ton because now people think I am connected to ISIS,” Hafizi told the publication. “We’ve gotten calls from people asking for pizza with a head on top of it and other crazy calls.”

Hoxha’s family owned the pizza shop nearly 20 years ago, and there have been other owners since then, according to the report. Meanwhile, a neighbor on their home street, who asked not to be identified, said she remembers Hoxha growing up.

A terrorist who goes by the name "Abu Hamza al-Amriki" made waves in May 2017 when he appeared in an ISIS propaganda video, according to NBC News. In that video, he called on lone wolf attacks on targets in the United States.

"Liberate yourself from hellfire by killing a kafir," Abu Hamza al-Amriki said in the video, as reported by NBC, which showed him in battlefield fatigues and kneeling in front of rocket launchers.

His mother told NBC she last talked to him about a year ago. Hoxha, according to the court documents in the Wright case, joined ISIS in Syria in April 2015 and quickly became a senior commander, the documents said.

Photo courtesy of NBC 4 New York