Photos of Osama bin Laden and anti-American rants on Facebook by the suspect are raising fears the brutal murder of a co-worker in Oklahoma is an act of terror and not workplace violence.
Alton Nolen, 30, decapitated a co-worker then stabbed another at the food processing plant in Moore, Okla., Thursday before being shot by a plant manager who is a reserve deputy, police say.
Nolen’s Facebook page included anti-American posts warning that “Sharia law is coming” and photos of bin Laden, according to multiple media accounts.
“America and Israel are wicked,” he said in one July post, according to the Daily Caller.
Other Facebook posts include a bloody decapitation photo with the statement “Islamic terrorists behead their victims because of a ‘precedent bestowed by their Prophet,’” the New York Daily News reported.
Co-workers described Nolen, who survived the shooting, as a recent convert to Islam.
Writing under the name Jah’Keem Yisrael, Nolan also warned the Statue of Liberty is “going into flames,” according to the Daily News.
Nolen was fired from his job at the plant Thursday. He returned later in the day and attacked his two victims, severing one woman’s head and critically injuring another.
The FBI is assisting in the investigation.
The Moore Police Department issued a statement saying it sought assistance from federal investigators after learning of Nolen’s religious conversion, the manner in which the murder was committed and statements from co-workers.
Nolen has an extensive criminal history, which includes drug offenses and assaulting a police officer, and was released from prison in March 2013.
Terror expert Chad Sweet, CEO of the Chertoff Group and a former top official at the CIA and Department of Homeland Security, said he expects the incident to be labeled a terrorist attack by federal authorities.
“The only thing that is causing a pause I think is the fact that the triggering event was the termination of his employment,” Sweet told Fox News.
