RIYADH – Abdullah Al-Rasheed, the young man who blew himself up Thursday evening near a checkpoint here, shot his uncle four times in the head then stabbed him ten times, said Sultan Al-Sufian, a cousin of the murdered Col. Rashid Al-Sufian.
“Our family is living a nightmare these days and the morals hit rock bottom because of the heinous crime. All those who know my late cousin feel shocked how the nephew killed his kind-hearted uncle,” Al-Sufian was quoted by Al-Hayat Arabic daily as saying.
It was Al-Sufian who took care of his nephew ever since his parents got separated. He loved his nephew and fulfilled all his wishes and never turned down his nephew's requests. The killer and his mother were staying on the top floor of the victim's house.
“Al-Rasheed was moderate and never had any deviant thoughts. After graduating from the high school, he stayed at home for a year without a job,” Al-Sufian said. It was during this time that Al-Rasheed's family members noticed a change in his behavior and they could not see anything beyond that.
The victim was a good and hardworking person who dedicated himself to the duties of work and his nephew as well. Al-Sufian said on that fatal day Al-Rasheed went with his uncle to run some errands and his uncle's children were riding with them in the car. After getting back home, Al-Rasheed told his uncle that he wants to see him in private and the latter agreed.
When they were finally alone, Al-Rasheed pulled out a silencer from his pocket and killed him. Then he stormed off the room, took his uncle's car, and headed off to Al-Ha'er prison to blow himself up and killed as many security officers as possible.
Al-Rasheed's family members insist that he lived a moderate life until he finished the high school and stayed at home. That is when they noticed that he was writing extremist tweets and voice deviant thoughts. He even attacked several newspapers that criticized terrorists and was following numerous prominent religious and political figures.
