Suspect apologizes for Pit rampage

HILLSBOROUGH -- The man accused of driving a rented SUV onto the UNC-Chapel Hill campus last year, striking nine people, apologized for the incident in a letter sent to Orange County Superior Court last month.

"I am very sorry for the crimes which I committed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on March 3, 2006," Mohammed Taheri-azar wrote in the letter dated May 20. "I sincerely regret what I did on that day. Please release me from state custody so that I may pursue my goal of living a productive life in California."

In March a judge sent Taheri-azar to Dorothea Dix Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation after the curse-spewing man shouted hate-filled speech in the courtroom and called his court-appointed lawyer a moron.

Taheri-azar apologizes for that incident as well in the one-page handwritten letter addressed simply "Dear Sir or Madam."

"I ... apologize for my distasteful conduct in your courtroom on March 5, 2007. I promise you that I will never again in my life display such poor, ignorant behavior.

"My primary goal in life is now to work for my father's general contracting company in Anaheim, California, and to reestablish myself as a good, caring and productive member of society."

In January, Taheri-azar, 23, pleaded not guilty to nine counts of attempted first-degree murder and nine counts of felonious assault in connection with driving along the Pit, a student gathering place on the UNC campus. He struck nine people that day, aiming to kill them to avenge Muslim deaths, according to police. None of those struck required overnight hospitalization.

After the March court session, Public Defender James Williams said his client "has a severe mental illness" that had just affected his actions in court, as well as on the day he drove through campus.