Court documents in the case of the children found living in a makeshift New Mexico compound say one of the men arrested on child abuse charges was training the children to commit school shootings, according to The Associated Press. Eleven children were rescued from the compound near the Colorado border last week where authorities found them starving and living in filthy conditions. Five adults — two men and three women — were also found at the compound and have been charged with child abuse. ADVERTISEMENT Authorities also found the remains of a child on the property, but have not yet positively identified them. Police found the body while searching for Abdul-ghani Wahhaj, a child with a severe medical condition who was reported abducted late last year when his father took him from his mother in Georgia. He was 3 years old at the time. Authorities say his father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, was one of the five adults found at the compound, where he was conducting weapons training. Siraj Ibn Wahhaj faces charges of abducting his son. According to the warrant for his extradition, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj had expressed a desire to perform an exorcism on the son. The children found alive at the compound ranged in age from 1 to 15 and have been placed in protective custody. Authorities who raided the compound found a box of rice, some potatoes, and “a cache of guns, including an AR-15 rifle,” according to NBC.<doc-sep>A man arrested at a makeshift compound in New Mexico where 11 children and the remains of a boy were found was training one of the children to commit school shootings, court documents alleged Wednesday. Documents filed in 8th District Court in Taos County quoted the foster parent of one of the 11 children as having told investigators that Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 40, the father of a missing Georgia boy, was conducting weapons training at the squalid compound in the northern part of the state. Wahhaj "had trained the [foster parent's] child in the use of an assault rifle in preparation for future school shootings," according to the document, which argues that Wahhaj should be held without bond. He entered no plea during an initial hearing Wednesday, and a bond hearing is pending. The allegation was first reported by The Associated Press. Authorities raided the compound in Amalia on Friday during a search for Wahhaj's son, a 3-year-old who went missing eight months ago in Jonesboro, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. Wahhaj was the prime suspect. Once there, they came across Wahhaj, four other adults and 11 hungry children ages 1 to 15. But they didn't find his son. When investigators returned to the property on Monday, they found remains of a boy. A positive identification is still pending, but officials believe they are those of Wahhaj's son, Abdul-ghani. The child's fourth birthday was the same day that the remains were discovered. Authorities said that Wahhaj had multiple firearms, including an assault rifle, and that they believed a shooting range was on the property. They arrested the adults and charged them with 11 counts of child abuse. Wahhaj was also charged with interfering with a parent's custodial rights, while a second man, Lucas Morton, 40, was also charged with harboring a fugitive. The death of the unidentified boy remains under investigation and wasn't included in the charges. Few details are known about the residents of the compound. After the raid, Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said that a tactical unit had been sent because the residents were likely "heavily armed and considered extremist of the Muslim belief." Wahhaj identified himself as “the son of the famous Muslim Imam Siraj Wahhaj” in a 2006 federal court filing obtained by the Associated Press. He said he was harassed by customs agents at John F. Kennedy International Airport before and after a trip to Morocco, according to the AP. The allegation in court documents that Wahhaj was training a child to commit school shootings is another bizarre twist in the case. Wahhaj is accused of having left Georgia in December with Abdul-ghani; the boy's mother told police that Wahhaj wanted to perform an exorcism on him because he thought the boy was possessed by the devil. He took the boy to a park but never returned, the woman said, according to an extradition warrant. Abdul-ghani struggled with seizures and hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, a birth defect caused by lack of oxygen and blood flow, and he couldn't walk, the warrant said. Siraj Wahhaj in a sheriff's photo released Friday. Taos County Sheriff's Office / AP Jason and Tanya Badger, who own the lot adjoining the land where the compound was built, said that the group set up camp around Christmas and that they asked the Taos County Sheriff's Office to remove the group because they believed the newcomers were encroaching on their land. A judge dismissed an eviction notice in June, according to court records. The Badgers told NBC affiliate KOB of Albuquerque that they believed they saw the missing boy in February, before they learned that he had been abducted in Georgia. He was listed in the National Crime Information Center Databases as a missing person shortly after he disappeared in December. "We saw him here alive and now he's not, and we have to live with that," Tanya Badger told the station through tears. Jason Badger added: "Something should have been done sooner. It's downright pathetic." Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe told reporters on Tuesday that FBI surveillance was unable to confirm that Wahhaj was there and that authorities didn't have enough solid evidence to move in at the time. The Badgers also told KOB on Wednesday that they returned to the property after Friday's raid and found weaponry that authorities still hadn't seized, including a tactical shotgun, a 9-mm pistol and plenty of ammunition. Jason Rael, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, told KOB: "At this point, with the resources that we had, we did a thorough search of that compound." CORRECTION (Aug. 8, 2018, 5:25 p.m. ET): An earlier version of this article misstated the charges facing Siraj Ibn Wahhaj. Charges include child abuse and interfering with a parent's custodial rights, but not conspiracy to commit school shootings.<doc-sep>Prosecutors said in court filings that Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, who was arrested following a raid at his New Mexico compound where 11 children were living and the remains of a child were later found, “was training children … to commit school shootings,” the Associated Press reported. A law enforcement official said there was a shooting range on the property, Reuters reported. The 11 children were rescued from the compound after a raid Friday when authorities were searching for a missing child, Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, Wahhaj’s 3-year-old son who disappeared from his mother’s house in Georgia in December. Authorities discovered a child’s remains, but it’s unclear if they are those of Abdul-Ghani. Wahhaj’s sisters and two other adults were arrested at the compound, according to CNN. Wahhaj was already facing charges for allegedly abducting his son. Wahhaj and the other four adults were charged with felony child abuse, the AP reported.<doc-sep>We're sorry... The page you are looking for cannot be found. Return to the homepage<doc-sep>
Prosecutor Timothy Hasson filed the documents while asking that Wahhaj be held without bail after he was arrested last week with four other adults facing child abuse charges. The documents say Siraj Ibn Wahhaj was conducting weapons training with assault rifles at the compound near the Colorado border where 11 hungry children were found in filthy conditions. TAOS, N.M. — The father of a missing Georgia boy was training children at a New Mexico compound to commit school shootings, prosecutors said in court documents obtained Wednesday. Prosecutors did not bring up the school shooting accusation in court on Wednesday during an initial appearance by the abuse suspects. Authorities say the remains of a boy also were found at the compound but have not been positively identified by medical examiners. The child, Abdul-ghani Wahhaj, went missing in December in Jonesboro, Georgia, near Atlanta. Authorities say his father had told the boy’s mother that he wanted to perform an exorcism on the child. He later said he was taking the child to a park and didn’t return. For months, neighbors worried about the squalid compound built along a remote New Mexico plain, saying they took their concerns to authorities months before sheriff’s officials raided the encampment, described as a small camping trailer in the ground. Authorities said during the raid Friday that they had found the father armed with multiple firearms, including an assault rifle. They also said they believed there was a shooting range on the site. The group arrived in Amalia in December, with enough money to buy groceries and construction supplies, according to Tyler Anderson, a 41-year-old auto mechanic who lives nearby. He said he helped the newcomers install solar panels after they arrived but eventually stopped visiting. Anderson said he met both of the men in the group, but never the women, who authorities have said are the mothers of the 11 children, ages 1 to 15. Anderson did not recall seeing the Georgia boy who was missing. But he said some of the smaller children from the compound turned up to play with children at neighboring properties after the group first arrived. ‘‘We just figured they were doing what we were doing, getting a piece of land and getting off the grid,’’ said Anderson. As the months passed, however, they stopped seeing the smaller children playing in the area. They also stopped hearing guns fired off at a shooting range on the property, he said.