Thursday, March 30, 2017
James Harris Jackson was charged on Monday with murder as an act of terrorism, after allegedly fatally stabbing Timothy Caughman in Manhattan last week. Jackson said the act was motivated with intent to kill a “black man”.
Caughman, 66, allegedly was stabbed in the chest with an 18-inch sword, from behind, while collecting recyclable bottles. He made his own way for help to a nearby police station, bleeding. He was taken to Bellevue hospital but died there.
Jackson, 28, is a former soldier who served in Afghanistan. In an interview with the New York Daily News from New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex, Jackson revealed he intentionally traveled from Baltimore, where he grew up, with a plan to go on a killing spree to murder black men. He added that he considered “1950s America” an ideal society.
Jackson had also already been charged with murder as a hate crime. Jackson said he wanted to convince white women not to mix interracially and “had been thinking about it for a long time, for the past couple of years”. On March 22, he turned himself in to police in Times Square.
Since being kept in jail, Jackson has received many death threats. His attorney, Sam Talkin, said “we’re going to address the obvious psychological issues that are present in this case” if the allegations are proven true.
Vigils and marches have been held in mourning of Caughman’s death.
Jackson’s arraignment is scheduled for April 13.