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California gunman to appear in court on murder count

California gunman to appear in court on murder count

FRESNO, Calif. — The suspect in this week's Fresno, California, mass shooting is scheduled to appear in court Friday to face arraignment for a first-degree murder charge in a killing five days earlier.

Kori Ali Muhammad was charged Thursday with killing unarmed security guard Carl Williams at a Motel 6 in Fresno a week earlier.

Williams was the first of four killings by Muhammad, authorities said.

Muhammad said Williams had shown him disrespect while Muhammad was visiting a woman at the motel, according to police.

Police say he told them that learning he was wanted for the Williams killing spurred him to try to kill as many white people as possible before he was caught.

He shot three other white men at random on Tuesday, police said, including a Pacific Gas & Electric worker sitting in a truck and two men who had come out of a Catholic Charities building. He fired 17 rounds in less than two minutes and police, with help from acoustic sensors posted in the area, arrested him less than five minutes after the rampage began.

Prosecutors say Muhammad will face murder charges for all four men, but they're waiting for investigators assemble their case before filing the other three.

The Associated Press