The widow of the Palestinian who fired on
tourists and killed himself at New York City's Empire State
Building Sunday said in Gaza Monday her husband was not
politically motivated but in personal distress.
Fathiya Abu Kamal, 55, said her husband Ali Abu Kamal
travelled to the United States last December seeking a financier
for a new investment company. But somebody cheated him out of
his life savings of about half a million dollars.
``My husband thought his life ended at that point and there
is no way to compensate him,'' she told Reuters. ``He was 69
years old, he could not regain his money. If he really fired the
shots it is only out of despair and disappointment.''
In the shooting on the famous building's observation deck on
the 86th floor Abu Kamal killed one tourist, seriously wounded
six others and then shot himself. He died of his wounds hours
later.
New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani told a news conference the
gunman was carrying documents from the Palestinian Authority
that showed he lived in Ramallah on the West Bank and was born
in Jaffa. His family said he was born in Jaffa but lived in
Gaza, not Ramallah.
He came to New York on Christmas Eve.
Kamal had bought the pistol used in the shooting in Florida
at the end of January, the mayor said. Police said a receipt for
the gun was found on his body.
He said a joint terrorism task force of the Federal Bureau
of Investigation and city police would investigate the
shootings.
The widow insisted there was no political motive.
``My husband is not a terrorist, he was just hopeless,'' she
said. ``He was aged, he had nothing to do with politics, or
terrorism, or crime.''
Abu Kamal's widow, six children and relatives mourned him at
their home in Gaza City's middle class Rimal neighborhood.
Relatives said Abu Kamal had been an English teacher at a
college for 50 years and was planning to start a business.
The widow appealed to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to
have the body sent to Gaza for burial and also requested to be
informed of ``the mysterious circumstances of his death.''