Murder suspect on 'jihad' against US policy in Middle East admits to NJ armed robbery

Ali Muhammad Brown appears in court in Essex County, N.J. in August 2014. (Frances Micklow/The Star-Ledger via AP, Pool, File)

A Seattle man accused of embarking on a killing spree in 2014 pleaded guilty Friday to an armed robbery outside a New Jersey coffee shop four days after he killed a local college student.

Ali Muhammad Brown, 33, pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery and a weapons charge in connection with the June 2014 incident in Point Pleasant Beach, according to the Asbury Park Press.

Prosecutors said Brown confronted a victim outside the coffee shop armed with a handgun on June 29, 2014. Brown eventually took the victim's keys and wallet, the Press reported, but couldn't drive away in the victim's car because he didn't know how to drive a stick shift.

Investigators said Brown fled on foot to a nearby grocery store, where he left a bag of his belongings. The bag was later recovered by detectives.

Brown was arrested the following month. He's currently serving a 35-year term for a robbery in West Orange that took place after the Point Pleasant Beach robbery.

Earlier this month, Brown admitted to fatally shooting 19-year-old Brendan Tevlin as the victim sat at a traffic light in West Orange on June 25, 2014. He also admitted to killing three men in Washington state. Those men have been identified in local news reports as 30-year-old Leroy Henderson, 23-year-old Dwone Anderson-Young and 27-year-old Ahmed Said.

At the time, Brown claimed that he was engaging in "jihad" to retaliate for the deaths of Muslims as a result of U.S. military action in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, prosecutors said he killed one of the Washington state men in a road rage incident, while the other two men were killed because he believed they were gay.

Brown has yet to enter a formal plea in the Washington state cases.

Click for more from the Asbury Park Press.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.