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Terror suspect
was good kid, sez dad
BY ADAM LISBERG
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Narseal Batiste
CHICAGO - The father of the accused ringleader of a wacky
terrorist cell said yesterday he can't understand how a son who
went to church every Sunday and attended Catholic schools could
end up charged with plotting to wreak havoc on America's tallest
building.
"My son wasn't raised this
way. He needs psychiatric help," Narcisse Batiste, 72, told
the Daily News yesterday from his home in
Bunkie, La. "I disagree with wrongdoing, and I don't believe
in trashing the country where you live. If he made
statements like that, he definitely needs some psychiatric
treatment."
Prosecutors say Narseal Batiste, 32, led a bizarre group of
ragtag renegades in Florida who wanted to launch a holy war
by bombing the Miami FBI office and Chicago's Sears Tower -
the tallest building in North America and a fixture of the
skyline in the city where Narseal Batiste was raised.
Narcisse Batiste said his son was arrested in 1993 for
breaking a car window. Something happened the next year, the
dad said. A charismatic man - who wore a black robe and
carried a walking stick, and whose identity he did not know
- converted his son to a sect that mixed Islam,
Christianity, Judaism and martial arts.
"He talked with God, and he told me he wanted to join the
Muslim religion," Narcisse Batiste recalled. "I said, 'Son,
you're grown, I can't stop you from doing what you want to
do, but don't do anything that will get you in trouble.' He
promised me that he wouldn't."
Narseal Batiste was the youngest of six kids in a family of
Baptist preachers who alternated between Louisiana and
Chicago. Relatives and neighbors in Chicago remember him as
a respectful young man who attended the prestigious Brother
Rice High School.
"He was a 'yes sir-no ma'am' kind of boy," his uncle John
Ford, 67, of Chicago told The News. "This is a tremendous
surprise. I can't hardly believe it."
Over the years, Narseal's brothers and sisters found
stability in construction work. He married and started a
family, but hit tough times - filing for bankruptcy in 2001
while employed as a FedEx driver.
He was distraught after his beloved mother, Audrey, died in
2000, relatives told The News, and the next year he left
Chicago and dropped out of sight.
"He didn't tell me," Narcisse Batiste said. "I hadn't seen
him for 41/2 or five years. Then I saw him on TV as a
criminal. . . . I just can't fit that in my head. Trying to
bring harm to anybody, I just can't see it."
Narseal, his wife, Minerva, and their four kids moved to
Florida, where they started a contracting company.
Prosecutors say he also began recruiting young men to join
him in a terror plot.
Originally published on June 25, 2006
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