MESA, Ariz. — As he was led away by police, Frank S. Roque protested that he was a patriot, standing up for his brothers and sisters.
"I'm an American!" he shouted. "I'm a d--- American all the way! I'm an American! Arrest me! Let those terrorists run wild!"
Officers were arresting Roque in a series of drive-by shootings on Sept. 15 that left an Indian immigrant dead. Two days later, prosecutors would charge Roque with murder and three counts of attempted murder for actions they suggest represent a dark side to the patriotism that gripped the nation following the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
They say Roque targeted Balbir Singh Sodhi, the bearded, turbaned Sikh owner of a gas station in this Phoenix suburb, and others because of their ethnicity.
Beyond his statements on the night of his arrest, Roque, who was jailed on $1 million bail, has not spoken publicly about the shootings. His lawyer, Daniel Patterson, would not comment.
"This is not the man we know," said Cindi Roque, Roque's sister-in-law. "This was not Frank. He was not a racist or a bigot and there was nothing in his background that pointed to this. He was always just a very hardworking, compassionate, good man."
One friend described Roque as a "9-to-5er" who liked to join co-workers for happy hour, hold barbecues and take his family boating. Roque, 42, was born in New York and worked as a machinist at a Boeing helicopter plant in Mesa for most of the past 17 years.
Neighbors in the Mesa trailer park where Roque lived said he appeared calm when they talked on the street or saw him washing his pickup, but on several occasions they heard screaming arguments involving Roque, his wife, Dawn, and their two teen-age daughters.
In 1999, Roque's wife obtained a restraining order barring him from contacting her or their daughters. Mrs. Roque said that over the years, her husband had kicked her, punched her, tried to strangle her and put a gun to her head. She also said he slammed the children into walls and hit them. The restraining order was lifted about a month later at Mrs. Roque's request.
Mrs. Roque declined interview requests.
In April, Roque requested a restraining order against his stepdaughter, complaining she had leveled false allegations against him to the police to try to get him thrown out of the house. His request was denied.
Five months later, police said, Roque drove his pickup to a gas station and shot Sodhi. Next, they sad, Roque drove 10 miles to a second gas station and fired shots through a window at a Lebanese-American clerk, and finally opened fire on the nearby home of a family of Afghan descent. No one was wounded in the last two shootings.
Police said Roque's brother, Howard, called police to turn him in.
Cindi Roque said that her husband did so after getting a disturbing call from Frank the day of the shootings. She would not elaborate on what was said. And police have not disclosed anything about the conversation.
Roque had once lived in the house that he allegedly shot at, and he was the one who sold it to the Afghan family who lives there now. Wais Sahak, the son of the current owners, said his family met Roque when they bought the house, and "everything was nice. No problems." They had not seen Roque since they bought the home, he said.
Since the shootings, Sahak said, his family was visited by Roque's.
"We think it was an isolated incident," Sahak said, "one guy with a little too much on his mind."