One of the accused Jersey Jihadists went berserk when his brother refused to convert to Islam last year, smashing a glass picture frame over his head in a wild melee that also left his mother badly bruised, cops say. "I guess he looked at anyone who isn't a Muslim as an enemy, including his own family," Elmwood Park Police Chief Don Ingrasselino said of Carlos Almonte, 24. "It's crazy." The shocking revelation emerged a day after Almonte and his wanna-be jihadist pal, Mohamed Alessa, were denied bail on charges they were plotting to kill U.S. troops in Africa.On May 23, 2009, Almonte began "preaching to [18-year-old Elvin] about the Islamic religion" in the living room of their Elmwood Park home, police reports say. When Elvin told Carlos he would not follow Islam, his 220-pound older brother allegedly flew into a rage. "Carlos became angry and they both began fighting," the report says.
Their mom, Sabrina, tried to intervene, but Elvin mistook her left arm for Carlos' and viciously bit into it, the report says. Moments later, Carlos grabbed the frame and slammed it into the back of his brother's head, the report says. Carlos, who by then had changed his name to Omar, fled after the incident - and his brother and mom called the cops.
He was collared eight days later after a car he was riding in with Alessa was stopped by Port Authority cops on its way into the Lincoln Tunnel. The cops were tipped off by the FBI that the pair was heading into the city to "disrupt the Israeli Day Parade," a source told the Daily News. "They did not have weapons or anything like that," the source added. "They were probably just going to be jerks, which is what they are."
Cops had been alerted that there was a warrant out for Almonte's arrest. They held him for Elmwood Park officers. Alessa, who had no ID on him, was detained and then released, the source said. Almonte, the son of Dominican immigrants, told cops he worked at the apparently fictitious Yeshiva Service Center in Fair Lawn, N.J. "I can see him [saying] that as a sick joke," Ingrasselino said. Almonte was charged with assault and possession of an unlawful weapon - and was released after posting $500 bail.
Almonte's sister defended her brother yesterday, saying Alessa led him to terror. "He never showed any signs," Ingrid Almonte said minutes after their mother was escorted out of the home crying hysterically and placed into a waiting ambulance. "This guy Mohamed brought a lot of trouble....My father didn't want him in the house. He brainwashed [Carlos] and tried to convert us too."
The 20-year-old son of Palestinian parents, Alessa also had a dark past. He was radicalized in his early teens and boasted about wanting to mutilate gays, subjugate women and blow up his school. Alessa's endless threats prompted North Bergen school officials to bar him from classes - and report him to the feds. "He was exhibiting this crazy, radicalized behavior," a source told the Daily News. "He was threatening classmates, threatening staff - all as part of this radicalized terroristic behavior."
Within months of enrolling at North Bergen High School in 2004, Alessa was deemed so dangerous he was barred from attending classes. School officials placed Alessa on "home instruction," forcing him to be taught alone at the North Bergen Public Library under the watchful eye of a school security guard. He transferred in the fall of 2005 to KAS Prep, an alternative school for troubled teens in North Bergen, but his vile threats only intensified. "Everyone tried to help this kid. He's just an angry, young man," a school official told The Bergen Record.
