From Quiet Teen to Terrorist Suspect

Police led Jason Walters from an apartment building in The Hague after a violent, hours-long standoff. Walters resisted arrest by throwing a hand grenade into the street, wounding three officers. (Rien Zilvold -- AP)

Little is known about why he went or what he did. But in a long and rambling letter written to his mother and recently published on some Dutch media sites, Walters said, "I know, dear mother, this will be difficult for you. Don't be sad. This life is temporary and short. Now I have eternal life."

If Walters was growing increasingly estranged from his mother, his mother was apparently growing frightened of him. According to neighbors, sometime last summer she called the police to say she felt threatened by her sons, "probably because they were too radical at home," a neighbor said. "She was not allowed to watch TV; there was no drinking." She took her two daughters and fled to a women's shelter in Den Helder, in the far north of the Netherlands, leaving Jason and Jermaine behind in the house, perhaps with a man who had been living there. Neighbors described him as a Nigerian known as George.

In September, the Walters brothers moved out, 17-year-old Jermaine going to a nearby apartment and Jason to The Hague, ostensibly to pursue college studies nearby. Jason moved into 92 Antheunis St., and his presence would have gone largely unnoticed in the working-class district of immigrants, many of them living in illegal sublets.

The first the neighbors in The Hague knew of Jason Walters was the sound of an explosion in the streets at 3 a.m. Nov. 10.

"We heard all the car alarms going off, all the dogs barking, the people yelling," said one resident of the street.

When the siege was over, three policemen were injured and seven cars were damaged, three destroyed.

At the same time, Jermaine was arrested in Amersfoort, and offered no resistance.

Special correspondent Misja Pekel contributed to this report.