By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau

JACKSONVILLE — A soldier who survived a June 1 shooting outside a Little Rock recruiting office in which another died said Tuesday he loves the Army and hopes to someday become a drill sergeant.

U.S. Army Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville, spoke at a news conference with his mother at a military recruiting center in his hometown. He said he was shot in the back and grazed on his head and in “my rear.”

“I like defending my country,” he said, adding that his “goal in the military is to become a sergeant and then later on become a drill sergeant.”

Also Tuesday, Abdulhakim Muhammad of Little Rock, the Muslim convert charged with shooting Ezeagwula and killing Pvt. William Long, 23, of Conway, outside an Army-Navy recruiting center in Little Rock, told the Associated Press he thought the shootings were justified because of U.S. military actions in the Middle East.

“I do feel I’m not guilty,” the 23-year-old said during a collect call from the Pulaski County jail to the AP. “I don’t think it was murder, because murder is when a person kills another person without justified.”

Muhammad has been charged with one count of capital murder and 16 counts of engaging in a terrorist act.

Ezeagwula said Tuesday he had known Long for just a few weeks but liked him. He said the two were standing outside the recruitment center smoking when a gunman drove buy and opened fire.

“He was a nice person,” the private said about Long, adding the two were in the middle of discussing their travels so far in the military.

Ezeagwula and Long had each just completed basic training and were in Little Rock working at the recruiting center temporarily. Ezeagwula was to be transferred to a military base in Hawaii earlier this week, but will remain in Arkansas until he is full recovered, said Capt. Matthew Feehan, commander of the Little Rock Army Recruiting Company.

Long was awaiting assignment in South Korea.

Ezeagwula declined to discuss his thoughts on the shooting and of Muhammad.

Ezeagwula’s mother, Sonja, who sat next to her son during the news conference, said she had “no bitter feelings” toward Muhammad.

“I just pray justice be served,” she said.

She said she had nothing but admiration for Long and his family.

“The Long family, they are superb people, some extra special people,” she said.

She also said the shooting has changed her perspective on life.

“We look at grass in a different way. We eat cereal in a different way. We use to eat cornflakes and now we eat Lucky Charms,” she said.

Sonja Ezeagwula said she is comfortable with her son staying in the Army.

“I think that’s a wonderful thing, because most people would feel bitter or angry, but he’s not. He doesn’t feel that way and I’m glad,” she said.

Muhammad, who was born Carlos Bledsoe and converted to Islam when he was a teenager, also told the AP on Tuesday that he did not agree with his lawyer’s claim that he had been “radicalized” in a Yemeni prison and that fellow prisoners that some call terrorists were actually “very good Muslim brothers.”

Jim Hensley, Muhammad’s attorney, declined to comment on his client’s statements Tuesday, noting a Pulaski County circuit judge has issued a gag order in the case.

“You can understand that if this is what you are telling me happened, I would be very concerned about this kind of stuff … but I don’t feel comfortable talking about because we’re under a gag order,” Hensley said.

Prosecutor Larry Jegley, who asked for the gag order in the case, said he had “never had a situation like this with a gag order and I’m sure Mr. Muhammad’s attorney will take care of it.”