Prosecutors plan to refute US Jewish center shooter's insanity claim

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Prosecutors described a deliberate plan to make a blood-soaked political point as a trial began Monday for a man accused of shooting up the Seattle Jewish Federation two years ago, killing one woman and wounding five. King County Deputy Prosecutor Erin Ehlert told jurors Naveed Haq carefully planned the attack in July of 2006, making four separate trips to gun shops in the days before the attack. He used the Internet to map the 227-mile (365-kilometer) trip from his parents' home in Pasco, Washington, to the Jewish Federation in Seattle. Haq, a 32-year-old Pakistani-American born in the US, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges of murder and attempted murder. If convicted he faces life in prison without parole. Ehlert said the state would challenge Haq's claim of insanity, describing him as being on a mission. "He thought about what he did. He planned what he did," she said.