Anastasia Pierce said her phone began ringing early Wednesday with the stunning news. Her ex-fiance, she was told, was being held as a suspect in the shooting deaths of his wife, his baby son and two nieces.
“I cried,” Pierce, 22, said from her new home in Savannah, Ga. “He’s not that kind of person. I don’t want everyone thinking that he’s this huge monster because of everything that happened.”
Pierce said she grew up next door to the suspect in Madison, Wis. Though he was 10 years older than she, they were engaged for nearly two years, but Pierce said his behavior, as well as their different religious beliefs, led her to call off their engagement in October 2008.
“He practiced Islam, prayed five times a day,” Pierce said. “He wanted a Muslim woman, and I wanted to marry a Christian man.”
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But religious differences weren’t the only factor behind the breakup, Pierce said. The suspect’s usually calm demeanor frequently shattered in a burst of anger, she said.
The suspect went on to marry Twanda Thompson, and court records indicate that their relationship was rocky as well. Thompson was found shot to death in bed with their 7-month-old son, Jihad, Wednesday morning in Chicago.
Weeks after their son was born, the suspect was arrested and charged with misdemeanor battery and disorderly conduct for beating Thompson in the parking lot of a Madison Wal-Mart, records show.
He was sentenced to 45 days in jail and released Feb. 22, according to jail records. Less than a month later, he and Thompson married.
But the relationship was riddled with domestic abuse, said Andrea Richardson, who lived in the same subsidized housing development as Thompson and the suspect.
She said the arguments between the couple would occur several times a week.
She said that recently, the man had wanted Thompson to dress in Muslim garb, and her refusal to do so sparked heated arguments.
“Now I wish I had called the police,” Richardson said. “She was real nice. She was a good mother.”