Activist's Colleagues Stunned By Shootings

James Edward Bess, the man accused of attempting to kill a controversial Nation of Islam disciple, has a violent past, but Seattle people who know Bess say they did not know him to be violent.

Reports in California yesterday said:

-- Bess was accused of shooting his brother to death in 1975 but was acquitted by a Fresno jury that found he acted in self-defense.

Fresno Bee newspaper stories of the time said Bess admitted killing Elvin O. Bess Jr., but he believed his brother was about to shoot him. No gun was found.

-- In 1965, a jury convicted Bess and another brother, Henry, of felony assault on a man who refused to buy a Black Muslim newspaper. It wasn't clear from the Bee's article what sentence James Bess received. Henry Bess was sentenced to nine months in jail.

-- According to the Bee's article, evidence in that trial showed James and Henry Bess were convicted in 1964 of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years in prison, then paroled the same day.

Bess and his brother had gotten into a knife fight in the back room of a bar in Caruthersville, Mo., according to police and press reports from Scott County, Missouri. M.L. Campbell was stabbed to death.

Because it was a bar fight and authorities couldn't determine exactly what happened, Bess and his brother were charged with manslaughter. Bess pleaded guilty in October 1964 and was sentenced to 10 years, but was placed under what is known in Missouri as a "bench parole," meaning he was put on probation and the sentence was suspended.

Seattle police said Bess has no criminal record here.

People in Seattle who are acquainted with Bess say they did not know him to be violent and were surprised that Bess is the suspect in Sunday's attack on Khallid Abdul Muhammad.

"I can't put these things together with the man I know," said Charlie James, an African-American community activist who has known Bess for 10 years.

"He never advocated taking up a pistol or any weapon of any sort to commit a violent act against anyone," James said of Bess, a former Nation of Islam minister who often appeared on Channel 29, a local public-access television outlet.

Bess, 49, also known in Seattle as Brother James X, Abdul Haqq Muhammad and Aquil Rashid, is being held in the shooting of Muhammad as he mingled with a crowd after giving a speech on the campus of the University of California, Riverside.

Muhammad, 43, was shot in both legs. Four of his bodyguards and a bystander also were shot before the crowd jumped Bess and beat him until police intervened. None of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries.

Bess was arraigned yesterday afternoon in Riverside Municipal Court, charged with one count of attempted premeditated murder and five counts of assault with a firearm. The most serious charge carries a possible life prison term.

Bess, who suffered a broken shoulder, was in good condition in Riverside County Hospital.

None of the emerging reports seemed to describe the man known by community leaders in Seattle.

Michael Preston, president of the Seattle School Board, remembers Bess as an articulate and considerate man who argued against racial busing in the schools in 1985.

Preston said Bess was active in the community. "He did not seem to be the kind of person who would advocate an assassination."

James Kelly, executive director of the Washington state Commission on African American Affairs, has known Bess for about four years. Kelly described Bess as a respectful, astute and articulate spokesman for the Nation of Islam.

It was about three years ago that Bess was thrown out of the Nation of Islam movement by Wazir Muhammad, a close associate of Khallid Abdul Muhammad, according to James.

James is unsure why Bess was kicked out, but said it may have been because Bess preached a "slightly different brand" of principles than others in the Nation of Islam movement. However, Bess continued his advocacy for the Nation and its leader, Louis Farrakhan, James said.

Khallid Muhammad was suspended as a senior aide to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan after a November speech in which he called Jews "the bloodsuckers" of the black community, called the pope a "no-good cracker" and urged the killing of South African whites.

Farrakhan did not comment publicly on the shootings. Repeated calls to Nation of Islam headquarters in Chicago yesterday found no one willing to comment.

The Nation of Islam, often known as the Black Muslims, espouses a mixture of Islamic theology, economic independence, self-help and black separatism.

It is believed to have about 20,000 adherents nationally.

Information from Seattle Times staff reporter Peyton Whitely and Seattle Times wire services is included in this report.