Log in to WRAL.com with one click using your favorite social network:
OR
Log in using your WRAL.com account:



Wrong email/password combination.

Forgot password?

Register with WRAL.com using your favorite social network:
OR
Register for a WRAL.com account using our web form.

Login Options

12:18 p.m. • 2-12-12

Weather Forecast for Raleigh

  • Today: Clear.
    • Hi: 41° F
  • Mon: Partly Cloudy.
    • Hi: 50° F
  • Tue: Rain.
    • Hi: 53° F

Other Locations

> 7 Day Forecast

Doppler Image

Marketplace Links

Social Links

Main Menu

Jury convicts suspect in hit-and-run rampage


e-mail print friendly
Abdullah El-Amin Shareef
Abdullah El-Amin Shareef

After four days of deliberation, a Cumberland County jury found hit-and-run rampage suspect Abdullah El-Amin Shareef guilty of 10 charges, including first-degree murder and attempted murder, for a hit-and-run rampage that encompassed parts of three counties in 2004.

Shareef, 31, of Raeford, will be sentenced on Thursday. He faces the death penalty.

Authorities said Shareef stole a city-owned van in Fayetteville on April 14, 2004, hit and injured three men – Robert Fortier, David McCaskill and Gary Weller – in Fayetteville, then ran over Lonel Bass in Linden, killing him. Shareef abandoned the van, took Bass' pickup truck and continued north, authorities said, running down Seth Thompson in Harnett County before crashing the truck in Fuquay-Varina, where he was arrested.

Jurors found Shareef guilty of the first-degree murder of Bass. He was found guilty of the attempted first-degree murders of McCaskill and Weller.

Shareef was found guilty of two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury stemming from his attacks against McCaskill and Weller.

Jurors found Shareef guilty of misdemeanor assault with deadly weapon against Fortier, but not guilty of the attempted first-degree murder of Fortier.

In addition to the murder and assault convictions, Shareef was also found guilty of two counts of felony possession of a stolen vehicle and felonious larceny.

Shareef showed little reaction when the verdict was read. Victims and their family members hugged and cried following the verdict.

Shareef pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His attorneys have said he suffered from untreated paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the crimes.

Psychologists who evaluated Shareef shortly after the incident testified during the three-week trial that he was psychotic.

But prosecutors argued that Shareef made "conscious decisions" during the incident, running down men who were by themselves and then fleeing to avoid arrest.

Shareef's family and friends say the jury’s decision ignored testimony from mental health professionals like Rashad Rahmaan.

Rahmaan, a friend of Shareef's family, testified during the trial that he tried to get Shareef evaluated at a mental health facility in Hoke County, but the rampage occurred while Shareef was waiting for his appointment.

Rahmaan said the conviction should bring condemnation for the state's mental health system.

“Yeah, he’s guilty, he did that. I’m not saying he didn’t do that,” Rahmaan said. “I feel sorry for the families that were affected by this. Personally, I’m more disappointed in the mental health system.”

Authorities said Shareef will likely not be tried for the attempted murder of Thompson. The offense occurred in Harnett County.

"They made the right decision . It's been so long. I'm OK, but this has been so hard on the others, especially the Bass family. This couldn't have happened to sweeter people," Thompson said Wednesday after the verdict delivered.

RELATED TOPICS: Cumberland County, Harnett County, Fuquay-Varina, Hoke County, Raeford, Fayetteville, Linden, Death Penalty

e-mail print friendly

29 Comments


WRAL.com welcomes your comments on this story. All comments are moderated prior to publication based on our posting guidelines. Please review them prior to posting and if your message is not approved.

View Comments VIEW ALL 29 COMMENTS

This story is closed for comments. Comments on WRAL.com news stories are accepted and moderated between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Latest Comments
jury "convicts", man, I bet that was a tough one!

All you folks who want to string him up just remember you're only a couple tenths of a percent of certain brain chemicals away from being in the same shoes. You could suffer a tiny change in your brain tomorrow and start thinking the driver of the car in the next lane was a zombie trying to eat your brains. Insane often doesn't mean inability to function, just that some of the conclusions you reach seem highly irrational to the rest of us. I've known mentally ill people who were perfectly capable of driving a car but unable to distinguish physical reality from what they knew in their heads. Our dismantling of the mental health care system in NC will mean more incidents like this as seriously ill people get shoved into the street without the care they need.

Here's a short list of people deemed psychotic who were either executed or awaiting;Ted Bundy,John Wayne Gacy,Albert Fish,Richard Ramirez*,Charles Singleton,just to name a few.Shareef needs to join them.

justice

He might be "crazy" and "mental illness " is a disease but he had enough sense to crank up a vehicle and after crashing run.... He had that much sense!!!! I personally, think he should be put at the bottom of a cage!!!

View Comments VIEW ALL 29 COMMENTS
Report It

Multimedia

Click Here