DEVELOPING: The man in custody for carrying a backpack with “suspicious items and products” inside Arlington National Cemetery overnight is a U.S. Marine Corps reservist, military and law enforcement sources tell Fox News.
Yonathan Melaku, a Lance Corporal Marine corps reservist who lives in Virginia and who is Muslim, has been identified as the suspect in custody, Fox News has learned.
Authorities said Friday they are investigating the man, whom they did not name, after he was found inside Arlington Cemetery overnight when the cemetery was closed.
FBI special agent Brenda Heck said during a press conference Friday that the man, described as in his 20’s, had a backpack containing a “non-explosive, unknown material” that she said will require further investigation.
“The products in the backpack are inert,” Heck said, though she described its contents as suspicious.
Though the man was “not forthcoming” when taken into custody, Heck said authorities later found his red 2011 Nissan near the Pentagon. She said authorities found “no suspicious activity” related to the vehicle.
Melaku, who lives in Alexandria, Va., joined as a reservist in August 2007 but military officials say there is no record indicating he served in Iraq or Afghanistan.
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7 Responses
The political correctness of our country is leading us down a suicidal path. During WW II we did not sent those of Japanese descent to fight in the Pacific and we did not send those of Germany descent to fight in Europe. So why are we sending Muslims to fight Muslims and expect them to be loyal to America. You cannot send a brother to fight another brother, which was the lesson of our civil war.
Moslem’s should be expected to be loyal to their coreligionist and their religion calls for the destruction of the US and Israel. Wake up America it is almost too late.
Remember Nidal Malik Hassan, who executed 14 people at Fort Hood?
ISLAM = RELIGION OF PEACE. One piece here, one piece there.
Tssk, tssk. Looks like someone hasn’t been holding to Shelo Shinu Es Shemam……Yonathan?!
mik5- Hehe-Cute!
“we did not send those of Germany descent to fight in Europe.”
I think Dwight Eisenhower was allowed to have a role in the war there.
How did a Muslim get a first name like that? His name suggests an Ethiopian Christian?
P.S. In World War II, Americans descended from immigrants from (or who were immigrants from) Axis countries routinely served on all fronts. What the person who thought otherwise was probably confused by was the existence of an all-Japanese unit that became famous fighting in Italy.
Further accounts suggest he was neither a Muslim not a terrorist, but was an Ethiopian Christian who was not carrying a terrorist device of any sort (but may be under suspicion for some non-political criminal activities).
Yet another example of “yellow journalism”