African-American leader corroborates police story of Boston terror suspect’s shooting

BOSTON — A leader of Boston’s African-American community said Wednesday that a police video of the fatal shooting of a terror suspect makes clear he “was not shot in the back.”

Darnell Williams, head of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, said after viewing the video that he could “150 percent corroborate” the police account of how the officers engaged with Usaama Rahim.

Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said officers confronted him because “military and law enforcement lives were at threat.”

Rahim had talked with another suspect about “committing beheadings” and “harming police officers,” a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation said.

The official was not authorized to release details and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Rahim was shot because he was menacing the officers with a large military-style knife that he refused to drop, Evans said.

Williams said the images make clear that Rahim “was not on a cell phone and was not shot in the back,” two “inaccurate” allegations made by the dead man’s brother, Ibrahim Rahim, who is a prominent Muslim scholar.

Williams said he’s not ready to say the shooting was justifiable, and a Boston Muslim leader, Imam Abdullah Faaruuq, called the video “inconclusive.” He agreed that Rahim wasn’t shot in the back, but said the images are of poor quality and it wasn’t clear whether police had to use deadly force.

“They might have approached him in a different way,” Faaruuq said.

Usaama Rahim had been under surveillance by a Joint Terrorism Task Force and spreading online propaganda for the Islamic State group before he was shot and killed on Tuesday, said U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee.

The task force was investigating Usaama Rahim because he had been “communicating with and spreading ISIS propaganda online,” the Texas Republican said. “These cases are a reminder of the dangers posed by individuals radicalized through social media.”

Authorities quickly showed the video to African-American and Muslim community leaders in an effort to dispel rumors about the confrontation. The meeting Wednesday “was all about pulling the community together,” Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said.

Usaama Rahim had been under 24-hour surveillance “for quite a time” and “had some extremism as far as his views,” but “a level of alarm” prompted the task force to try to question him Tuesday, Evans said.

The FBI also arrested David Wright, 26, of Everett, who was scheduled to appear in federal court in Boston Wednesday afternoon.

The charges against Wright were not immediately disclosed, but the law enforcement official said he had talked with Usaama Rahim about beheadings.

Ibrahim Rahim disputed the official account immediately after the shooting, writing on his Facebook page that his brother had been killed while waiting for a bus.

“He was confronted by three Boston Police officers and subsequently shot in the back three times,” Ibrahim Rahim wrote. “He was on his cellphone with my dear father during the confrontation needing a witness.”

Police said the video shows that officers did not have their weapons drawn when they approached Rahim and that they backed up when he initially lunged at them with the knife.

Ibrahim Rahim has spent decades as an imam leading prayers and teaching moderation in Boston and around the country. He “is a great guy and preaches a very moderate form of Islam,” said Yusufi Vali, executive director of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, where Usaama Rahim worked as a guard.

After the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013, Ibrahim Rahim described Jihadis who promote terror as “hell-bent on Islam’s destruction from within,” and urged fellow Islamic leaders to drive “a mass recall of the rhetoric of hate and to suppress any and all human desire to harm others based on any contrived justification.”

The imam could not be reached for comment Wednesday. His e-mail said he was traveling to Boston to bury his brother.

Boston voter registration records for Rahim list him as a student. Records indicate that as recently as two years ago he was licensed as a security officer in Miami, but they don’t specify in what capacity. A spokeswoman said Rahim had worked for CVS since March.

Vali said Usaama Rahim did not regularly pray at the center and did not volunteer there or serve in any leadership positions.

Rahim’s shooting is being investigated by the Suffolk district attorney’s office and the FBI — a routine procedure for shootings involving police — and The Council of American-Islamic Relations will monitor the investigation, spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said.

Vincent Lisi, special agent in charge of the Boston FBI office, said authorities “don’t think there’s any concern for public safety out there right now.”

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

The rezoned property, seen here from the Hillside Vista luxury development, is surrounded on two sides by modern neighborhoods Monday, March 25, 2024, in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Despite petition, Lake Stevens OKs rezone for new 96-home development

The change faced resistance from some residents, who worried about the effects of more density in the neighborhood.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

T.J. Peters testifies during the murder trial of Alan Dean at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Bothell cold case trial now in jury’s hands

In court this week, the ex-boyfriend of Melissa Lee denied any role in her death. The defendant, Alan Dean, didn’t testify.

A speed camera facing west along 220th Street Southwest on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023 in Edmonds, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Washington law will allow traffic cams on more city, county roads

The move, led by a Snohomish County Democrat, comes as roadway deaths in the state have hit historic highs.

Mrs. Hildenbrand runs through a spelling exercise with her first grade class on the classroom’s Boxlight interactive display board funded by a pervious tech levy on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 in Marysville, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lakewood School District’s new levy pitch: This time, it won’t raise taxes

After two levies failed, the district went back to the drawing board, with one levy that would increase taxes and another that would not.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.