Truck stop stabbing spree suspect's mother: 'He's not a violent person'
"Idris Abdus-Salaam's mother contends he was not capable of the unexplained violence that left three women dead at an East Knox County truck stop.
Walidah Abdus-Salaam, however, maintains that such a heinous act is completely out of character for her son."
"He's not a violent person," she told Knox News. "The picture they painted is ugly. That is not my son.
"I don't believe it, and I refuse to believe it until they can prove otherwise to me."
"Abdus-Salaam was a U.S.-born citizen, a longtime Durham resident and a practicing Muslim, his mother said. He was not married and had no children.
Although he traveled frequently for his work, he stayed in close contact with his family and had spoken to his sister a couple of days before the attack.
His loved ones had no reason to believe he had become radicalized by any sort of religious fanaticism, his mother said.
The family had no indication Abdus-Salaam was suffering from mental illness, either.
"Unless it developed recently and I'm not aware of it," Walidah Abdus-Salaam said."
