MIAMI -- There is yet another South Florida connection to a potential terrorist.

A man accused of plotting with al-Qaida terrorists to set off a radioactive "dirty" bomb lived in Florida through much of the 1990s and converted to Islam after serving time in a South Florida jail, officials said Monday.

Jose Padilla, 31, also known as Abdullah al Muhajir, a former Chicago street gang member, lived in Broward County from 1990 to 1997 and was convicted of aggravated assault with a firearm in Sunrise in 1992.

Padilla's mother still lives in an apartment complex in Plantation. On Monday night she left a note on her door (pictured right) asking reporters to leave her family alone.

According to The Miami Herald Padilla's ex-wife, Cherie Maria Stultz still lives in a condominium in suburban West Palm Beach (pictured left). Stultz has refused to be interviewed. Court records show she married Padilla in Broward County in 1996. They were divorced in 2001.

A Justice Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Padilla converted to Islam after his 1993 release from a jail term in Florida. He had identified himself as Catholic when he was booked on the charges.

Broward County sheriff's spokesman Hugh Graf said he did not know about Padilla's conversion but said ministerial programs are available to inmates at the jail.

Padilla was arrested after a shooting in Sunrise in 1991. He was charged with aggravated assault with a firearm, firing a gun from a car, carrying a concealed firearm, and battery on a law enforcement officer.

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Police records show Padilla showed a handgun to another driver after a traffic encounter. The driver and passenger followed Padilla to get his license plate information and stopped at a gas station in Sunrise.

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Police say Padilla pulled in front of the car and fired one shot out his passenger window at the other car about 25 to 50 feet away. Padilla later told investigators he fired the shot into the air. No one was hurt in the incident.

Police followed the license plate information and arrested Padilla outside his Lauderhill home. He had a silver .38-caliber revolver in his waistband when he was taken into custody, police said.

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"He just appeared to be someone who got angry. He had started to reach down for his firearm and we tried to communicate with him in both English and in Spanish. "Once we were able to take the firearm from him, he was cooperative," said Sunrise Police Lt. Charles Vitale, who made the arrest.

Vitale said Padilla was living with a girlfriend at the time, but he could not recall her name.

When Padilla was arrested, he told police he had worked at a Holiday Inn in Plantation setting up banquet rooms for two weeks. Records show he has his name "Jose" tattooed on his right arm.

While in the Broward County Jail, he was accused of battery on a jail officer and resisting without violence in January 1992.

Padilla settled all the charges with guilty pleas after spending 10 months behind bars. He was sentenced to a year in jail, the rest of the term was suspended, and he was placed on probation for a year.

His prosecutor had no recollection of him, his defense attorney did not immediately return a call for comment, and his arresting officer was not on duty.

His state motor vehicle records list a series of Broward County citations beginning with a bicycle violation in 1990 and an indefinite suspension of his license for a July 1997 speeding citation.

His Florida driver's license was issued in 1993, listing a Lauderhill address, and he received a speeding ticket seven months later on his 23rd birthday.

Padilla was on probation for a year ending in August 1993, said Sterling Ivey, a state Corrections Department spokesman. During that time, state records show he completed a substance abuse program.

The state repeatedly sent notices telling Padilla that he had failed to pay fines and appear in court but it got no response from 1996 to 1998. His latest Florida traffic citation was a speeding ticket issued in November 1997.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said Padilla traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan during 2001 and met with al-Qaida officials after serving prison time in the United States during the 1990s.

Ashcroft said Padilla "trained with the enemy, including studying how to wire explosive devices and researching radiological dispersion devices."

Padilla was convicted as a juvenile in Illinois of aggravated battery, armed robbery and attempted armed robbery and was jailed from November 1985 to May 1988, said a law enforcement source who did not want to be identified.

The source had no information about the incident that led to Padilla's arrest.

Nelly Ojeda, 64, who lives in the same Chicago three-story flat as the suspect did when he was a teen, said she was surprised by the news of his arrest.

"He was so quiet, so nice. He doesn't look like a person who would do something like that. It would surprise me if he did it," Ojeda said.

Ojeda said Padilla -- nicknamed Pucho -- used to play basketball at his elementary school down the street. He also had friends over and they would watch TV, play Nintendo and play in the back yard.

Ojeda said the family had lived in Puerto Rico before they moved to Chicago.