Woman, saying she's Jamal's wife, contends he was beaten by police

A woman swathed in a blue shawl alleged yesterday that Mumia Abu-Jamal, whom she identified as her husband and who is accused of murdering police officer Daniel Faulkner, was beaten by police officers outside Thomas Jefferson University Hospital after the Dec. 9 shooting in Center City.

The woman, who said she was Wadiya Jamal and was wed to Jamal about a year ago, made the beating allegation to reporters at the newsroom at City Hall.

She was accompanied by members of MOVE, a radical group supported by Jamal, who is a radio reporter and a past president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists.

Although she said she is Jamal's wife, he is legally married to Marilyn Cook, who declined comment on the news conference when reached by telephone yesterday. Jamal's name at birth was Wesley Cook.

Don Fair, a spokesman for Police Commissioner Morton Solomon, said an allegation of police misconduct in the Faulkner killing was received yesterday in a letter from Tony Jackson, a lawyer representing Jamal's relatives. Fair said the letter has been turned over to police internal affairs for investigation.

The woman said she wore the blue shawl because of threats made upon her life and the lives of Jamal's relatives. She contended that some threats had been made by police officers over the telephone.

"I don't know if that's really true," said Edith Cook, Mumia Abu-Jamal's mother, referring to the talk of threats made against the family by police officers. "The first couple of days, we got couple of calls, but that's all. "None of the callers identified himself," she said.

Mrs. Cook said that her son knew a woman named Wadiya but that she did not know the nature of the relationship.

The woman read a one-page, typed document that she said was a letter from Jamal to her. It was not signed. It stated in part that " the ruthless police . . . beat me . . . and split my skull."

The woman said Jamal suffered a punctured kidney, bruised ribs and serious head injuries as a result of the beating at the hands of officers in a police van and in front of Jefferson Hospital. She said " horrified" hospital employees had seen the beating, but she did not name the witnesses.

Jamal, 27, is in the Philadelphia Detention Center awaiting a Jan. 8 preliminary hearing into Faulkner's killing. He is recovering from a gunshot wound to the chest that police said he had sustained when the dying officer shot him. There have been no hospital or police reports of any other injuries to Jamal.

Police reports have said that Faulkner was shot twice by Jamal in the 1200 block of Locust Street about 5 a.m. Dec. 9 after the officer had stopped Jamal's brother, William Cook, on a routine traffic check.