Bed-Stuy Imam Says He Helped Uncover New Mexico Compound

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN — A Bed-Stuy imam said he helped authorities find the New Mexico compound where 11 malnourished children — nine of whom were his grandkids — may have been learning how to carry out school shootings.

Imam Siraj Wahhaj’s son, who shares his father’s name, was one of five people arrested in a raid where officials found weapons and children “with no food or fresh water” in a dirty compound outside Taos, New Mexico on Friday.

Wahhaj, imam of Bed-Stuy's Masjid at-Taqwa and the first Muslim person to give an opening prayer before the U.S. House of Representatives, posted a video statement on Facebook Thursday and claimed he provided authorities information that led to the children's rescue and son’s arrest.

According to Wahhaj, his daughter Subannah contacted him through a friend in Atlanta, who asked the imam to send food to his three-year-old grandson, Abdul-Ghani, his son, two daughters, and nine grandchildren.

“We sent the food and gave the information for the pick-up to the authorities,” Wahhaj said. “They wound up going to New Mexico to this place where they were staying and arrested my son.”

Taos County sheriff Jerry Hogrefe told reporters the raid was the result of a tip given to a Georgia investigator, who said someone at the compound had sent a message to a third party that they were "starving" and needed "food and water."

Authorities were looking for the imam’s son, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 40, whom they believed took his son Abdul-Ghani from the boy's mother in November.

At the compound, officials arrested the younger Wahhaj, his wife Jany Leveille, his sisters Hujrah Wahhaj and Subannah Wahhaj, and a man named Lucas Morton, all of whom were later charged with child abuse.

“They cut off relationships with everyone, with their mother, their father, their brothers and sisters, their friends,” said Imam Wahhaj. “I want to find out what happened, what made my children act in such a dramatic way.”

Investigators also found an AR-15 assault-style rifle, five loaded 30-round magazines and four loaded pistols, Hogrefe stated. New Mexico prosecutors later claimed one of the 11 children found in the compound was being trained in how to carry out a school shooting, the New York Times reported.

Abdul-Ghani was not among the children found at the compound, but authorities found a young boy’s remains that have not yet been identified.

“This is a big test for me, my family, and the Muslims, for all of us,” Imam Wahhaj said. “I want to find out what happened to my grandson.”

Photos credit: Taos County Sheriff's Office