NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A man who said he was on a "jihad" to avenge U.S. policy in the Middle East made a surprise guilty plea Tuesday to killing a college student in New Jersey and confessed to killing three other people in Washington state in a crime binge that took investigators weeks to connect.

Ali Muhammad Brown, a 34-year-old former Seattle resident, admitted shooting 19-year-old Brendan Tevlin in late June 2014 as Tevlin sat at a traffic light in West Orange, a few miles from Newark.

He also took responsibility for fatally shooting Dwone Anderson-Young, 23, and Ahmed Said, 27, earlier tha...