The mother of the man accused of beheading a woman at an Oklahoma food plant posted a video over the weekend apologizing to the victims’ families and claiming that there are two sides to every story.
Joyce Nolen, 50, the mother of the accused — 30-year-old Alton Nolen — appeared alongside the purported perpetrator’s sister, Megan Nolen, with both expressing their shock and disbelief over what unfolded last week.
“My heart is just so heavy right now. I know my son. My son was raised up in a loving home,” Joyce Nolen said. ”My son was raised up believing in God … my son was a good kid.”
As for authorities’ claims that Alton Nolen, a Muslim convert who reportedly tried to evangelize his coworkers before being fired from Vaughan Foods, a food distribution company in Moore, Oklahoma, decapitated Colleen Hufford, 54, and stabbed another employee at the company’s offices Thursday, Joyce Nolen was perplexed.
She claimed in the short video that the crime didn’t mesh with her son’s demeanor.
The bereaved mother also cautioned that the public has only heard one side of what reportedly unfolded and that she’s hopeful the “whole story will come out.”
“That’s not my son. There’s two sides to every story and we’re only hearing one,” Joyce Nolen said. “His family — our hearts bleed right now, because what they saying Alton has done. I want to apologize to both families, because this is not Alton, but I just — I’m praying that justice will prevail.”
Megan Nolen, 27, claimed that her brother has never been violent and that he has “always been a peoples’ person.” She expressed being in disbelief and asked the public to pray for everyone involved.
“We’re all still in shock right now … we just ask that everyone out there pray for us,” she said, noting that her family is also praying for the victims and their families.
Watch the video below:
State records indicate that Nolen was convicted of felony drug offenses, escape from prison and assault and battery on a police officer. Additionally, he reportedly served time in prison, according to Fox News.
Prosecutors also spoke out in the wake of the incident, telling the Oklahoman that Nolen served fewer than two years of a six-year sentence for cocaine possession with intent to distribute, among other infractions; he was released in March 2013.
Police say Nolen, who reportedly goes by the name Jah’Keem Yisrael on his Facebook page, will be charged with first-degree murder in Hufford‘s death.
He was stopped in the middle of his alleged attack at Vaughan Foods when the company’s chief operating officer, Mark Vaughn, who is also a reserve Oklahoma County Deputy, shot him.
