June 05--Officials in Boston were expected to release video showing the shooting death of a man accused of plotting to behead police after his family, who have questioned police actions, bury him Friday.
On Thursday, the family of Usaamah Rahim, 26, viewed the video, captured outside a CVS pharmacy in Boston early Tuesday. Police say they had Rahim under surveillance and opened fire when he lunged at them with a knife.
Initially, Rahim's family disputed the account, and his brother, Imam Ibrahim Rahim, alleged that his sibling had been shot in the back. But at a news conference Thursday, family attorney Ronald Sullivan told reporters that Ibrahim Rahim "simply did not have all the facts at that time" and made the claims about his brother's death based on hearsay from unidentified "third parties."
Nonetheless, the shooting has raised tensions at a time of heightened public debate over law enforcement shootings of black males and concerns over the expanding reach of the radical Islamic State.
Law enforcement authorities allege that Rahim and his nephew, David Wright, 24, who is under arrest, were followers of Islamic State and had plotted attacks that included beheading police officers.
"This was very real, it was very dangerous, and when it unfolded Tuesday morning, could have saved not only police officers' lives, but who knows where it could have gone also," Boston Police Commissioner William B. Evans said Thursday on the "Today" show.
Sullivan said Rahim's family never saw signs of radicalization in him.
"They are devastated," he said.
Rahim spent his first high school year at the Academic International School in Saudi Arabia before entering high school in Brookline, Mass., and graduating in 2007. Brookline schools Supt. Bill Lupini said Rahim had no disciplinary issues while in school in Massachusetts.
An aunt, who identified herself only by a first name, Karen, told reporters that she thought Rahim, as a black man, felt threatened by police.
"As you all know with the current slaughter of black men going on right now across the nation, that's enough to make any and all black men feel threatened," the aunt said at a televised news conference.
"If it wasn't for him being Muslim, we would not be hearing 'terrorism,' we would not being hearing 'ISIS'" in the media coverage, she said, referring to Islamic State.
Authorities have not discussed in detail how Rahim came under scrutiny. Conspiracy charges filed Wednesday against Wright allege the pair had been discussing beheadings and a possible attack on police officers, often in generic terms.
A third person alleged to have been involved in the conversations, outlined in an 11-page criminal complaint, has not been identified.
The complaint alleges that Rahim bought three fighting knives and a knife sharpener on Amazon.com last month and then called Wright and told him, "in guarded language," about a plot to kill people.
During another phone conversation in the hours before his death, the complaint says Rahim told Wright in part: "I'm just going to ah go after them, those boys in blue," a reference to police officers. "Cause, ah, it's the easiest target."
Authorities apparently became more concerned after intercepting that call and moved in to confront him.
Wright has been charged with conspiring to destroy evidence after officials said he told Rahim to get rid of his phone.
The shooting will be investigated by the Suffolk County district attorney's office to determine whether the use of force by police and the FBI was appropriate.
