Questioning of San Antonio man stuns neighbors

09/18/2001

By DAVID McLEMORE / The Dallas Morning News

SAN ANTONIO - San Antonio doctor Albader Al-Hazmi, who is being questioned by federal agents about last week's terrorist attacks, is a friendly family man who seemed "like a normal American," according to a neighbor.

"The family seems absolutely ordinary," Eric Vela said. "They drive around in a red minivan."

Dr. Al-Hazmi, a radiology resident from Saudi Arabia working at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, was sent to New York for FBI questioning Friday. Dr. Al-Hazmiwas among 49 people detained on immigration violations and being questioned in connection with the investigation. None has been charged, Justice Department spokeswoman Mindy Tucker said Monday.

Neighbors of Dr. Al-Hazmi's at the Villas of Northgate community said they were shocked that the man who waved at them on the way to the mailbox was being questioned in connection with the attack.

Federal agents descended on the gated community Wednesday, the day after the attack, to search the three-bedroom townhouse rented by the Al-Hazmi family.

"They were going through the garage and the house," Mr. Vela said. "They were hauling boxes out of the house."

Authorities also seized a computer from the library at the University of Texas Health Science Center, said Leni Kirkman, spokesman for the center.

Dr. Al-Hazmi, 34, was last seen at the hospital at a residents' conference on the day before the attacks, Ms. Kirkman said. He did not show up for work Tuesday, which Ms. Kirkman said was unusual.

Shortly after the attacks on the East Coast, the hospital staff was contacted by the FBI, Ms. Kirkman said.

Neighbors said they have not seen the family since the Friday before the attack. Last week, the family vehicle was in the garage, but no one was home. The blinds and curtains on an upstairs window hung askew, and the backyard gate was open.

Hospital employees were surprised to hear that Dr. Al-Hazmi was being questioned, but no one was rushing to judgment, Ms. Kirkman said.

"We're all doing a wait-and-see approach," she said "Everything I'm hearing, he had great credentials, was certainly a resident in good standing. The Health Science Center is saying he certainly is proficient in his duties."

Last week, the FBI told the hospital that "when he decides to come back to work here at university hospital, that they have no problem with that," Ms. Kirkman said.

"Obviously, we're shocked," said Dr. Gerald Dodd, chairman of radiology at the UT Health Science Center and Dr. Al-Hazmi's supervisor.

But, he added, "We haven't received any specific confirmation that he is involved in any way, and we will continue to treat him as innocent until we know otherwise."

Dr. Dodd said Dr. Al-Hazmi is in the final year of a four-year residency. "He is a good doctor, and I thought him to be a good man," he said.

"If there was anything different about him, it was that he was clearly a religious man."

Ms. Kirkman said Dr. Al-Hazmi "would stop at the designated times for a Muslim, [when] he would need to pray, but nothing red-flagged us as [his] being zealous."

Officials at Islamic centers in San Antonio said they had no knowledge of Dr. Al-Hazmi or his family.

Dr. Al-Hazmi came to San Antonio in July 1997 from Saudi Arabia, where he earned a medical degree from King Abdul Aziz University in 1991, Ms. Kirkman said. He worked at the teaching hospital there for a year then went to King Fahd central hospital in 1992. After a year there, Dr. Al-Hazmi went to work as a general physician at the health center of Aramco, a Saudi oil company in Abqaiq and Dhahran, Ms. Kirkman said.

Four years later, he came to San Antonio as a resident.

"We did not have enough students coming up in the UT Health Science System program to match with us," Ms. Kirkman said. "That's when we accept folks from outside the country."

Dr. Al-Hazmi was sponsored by the oil company he worked for, Ms. Kirkman said.

Records show that Dr. Al-Hazmi and his family lived briefly in an apartment near the medical school. Employees at the complex referred all inquiries to the FBI.

The family moved to the Villas of Northgate, a quiet complex of about 100 homes that is home to University of Texas at San Antonio students, medical students and retirees.

Mark Alvarenga, a resident of the Villas community, said Dr. Al-Hazmi and his family were among about a half-dozen Middle Eastern families who lived in the complex.

"They were pleasant and would wave and say hello as they walked around the neighborhood," Mr. Alvarenga said. "But they all pretty much kept company with each other. They didn't socialize with the other neighbors."

Dr. Al-Hazmi lived in the community with his wife and children. Neighbors thought he had two daughters and an infant son.

Christina Garza said she did not know Mrs. Al-Hazmi's first name but said she "wore the traditional Muslim head covering. You could only see her eyes. The children were rarely let out to play. Sometimes, we'd see the kids looking at us from their upstairs window."

Officials at the nearby Leon Valley Elementary School said the doctor's oldest daughter attended kindergarten briefly but withdrew Nov. 29, 1999. School officials said if a student withdraws to attend another school, the new school requests their records. No such request has been received, school officials said.

If the family entertained, it was with the other Middle Eastern neighbors. Those residents began moving out, one at a time, in March, Mr. Alvarenga said. "We noticed that they were leaving," he said. "The doctor was the last one left."

Staff writers Michelle Mittelstadt in Washington, George Kuempel in San Antonio and Diane Jennings in Dallas contributed to this report.