As a police officer and a FBI agent approach a terrorist suspect for questioning outside a CVS Pharmacy in Boston, the suspect whips out a large military knife and begins to lunge toward the them.
Usaama Rahim, a 26-year-old man, who had been under 24-hour terrorist surveillance by the U.S. Joint Terrorism Task Force, refused to stand down, according to Associated Press . As a result, Rahim was shot and killed.
CNN reports Police Commissioner Williams Evans stated Rahim was believed to have been involved with Islamic State extremists. “We believe he was a threat,” Evans admits. “He was someone we were watching for quite some time.”
Officials said they had been watching Rahim and two associates for at least a couple of years.
The agents approached Rahim due to disconcerting behavior including threats Rahim made on social media against police. Agents had already spoken with Rahim’s associates and had begun a search for Rahim in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
The agents spotted Rahim outside a Boston CVS around 7 a.m. Police Commissioner Evans explains that as the officers approached Rahim for questioning, Rahim startled them as he turned around and started in their direction waving a huge knife.
At that time, Evans stated none of the officers or FBI agents had their guns drawn. The officers began to back up and told Rahim to drop his weapon, and only opened fire after the terrorist suspect refused to comply to their order. Not having a choice, the officers fired their guns hitting Rahim once in the abdomen and once in the torso.
Evans reveals to Associated Press that the entire incident was captured on surveillance cameras and eye-witness videos. Evans said the videos show the officers backing away from Rahim as he continued to move toward the officers.
Rahim was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Ibrahim Rahim, the brother of the dead terrorist suspect, tells a completely different story of what he said happened. Ibrahim, who is an imam at the Lighthouse Mosque in Oakland, California, posted to Facebook that his younger brother was shot in the back three times while on the cell phone with his father at a bus stop.
Interestingly enough, CNN reports that the Islamic Society of Boston has been invited by police to watch the actual video footage of the shooting. The Boston Police have nothing to hide and are more than willing to put the minds of the Muslim community at ease.
In response to this invitation the Islamic Society of Boston made a statement, reported by CNN , which reveals their state of mind on the shooting.
“As religious institutions serving the Boston community, the Islamic Society of Boston (ISB) and the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC) are sad to hear of the shooting of Usaama Rahim. This tragedy has yielded many important questions that merit additional attention, and while we cannot expect all questions to be answered — our hope is that greater clarity and transparency will bring some peace to our congregation and the Boston community at large.”
Police Commissioner Evans makes it very simple. “Unfortunately, he (Rahim) came at the officers, and you know, they do what they are trained to do, and unfortunately, they had to take a life.”
[Photo Credit ABCNews.com, MSN.com]