Omar Regan, entertainer and son of the martyred Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, who was assassinated by the FBI on October 28, 2009. Regan was speaking at a rally outside the federal building in Detroit on November 5. (Final Call Photo)
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
FBI is cleared in imam's death; Feds: Agents had legitimate fears
It's not first to back FBI
BY NIRAJ WARIKOO
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Almost a year after a Detroit Muslim leader was shot dead by FBI agents, the Department of Justice has cleared all federal agents in the Oct. 28 killing, saying they acted appropriately in firing 20 bullets at Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, according to a report released Wednesday.
Underscoring the importance of the shooting death, Justice Department attorneys traveled from Washington, D.C., to Detroit on Wednesday to discuss the report with Abdullah's family and Muslim and African-American leaders. The meetings were tense at times, with the leaders calling the report one-sided.
But the 17-page report -- written in part by the same federal attorney who prosecuted the officers involved in the beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles -- says the four FBI agents had legitimate fears that Abdullah was going to harm them. The report echoes the findings released earlier this month from the Michigan Attorney General's Office and Dearborn police. The Justice report said Abdullah ignored orders to surrender and brandished what it says was a stolen gun.
Imam's supporters blast report
The FBI dog went straight for the Muslim leader, grabbing his left arm and a part of his upper body.
In the blink of an eye, Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah -- a Muslim leader who led a Detroit mosque -- aimed his handgun at the dog and in the direction of several FBI agents seeking to arrest him, according to a Justice Department report released Wednesday.
"Gun!" yelled one agent.
Abdullah shot the dog three times, and the agents then fired back at him 20 times.
"I shot to protect myself," said one agent, according to the report by the department's Civil Rights Division. It was the third report released this month -- the others by Dearborn police and the office of Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox -- that said FBI agents acted appropriately in the Oct. 28, 2009, shooting death of Abdullah in a Dearborn warehouse.
Supporters of the slain imam said they were disappointed in the report, calling it one-sided, and plan to gather today at a Detroit mosque to express their concerns. They say the investigation and shooting death was a case of overkill in the U.S. government's war on terrorism.
The FBI says that Abdullah was a black nationalist Muslim seeking to establish Islamic rule in the U.S. through violence, but supporters say he was merely trying to use Islam as a way to restore morality in impoverished Detroit neighborhoods riddled with crime.
They note that neither Abdullah nor his followers were ever charged with terrorism crimes.
Federal agents were seeking to arrest Abdullah and his followers on Oct. 28 in an undercover sting operation involving fake stolen goods provided by the government. The two-year investigation into Abdullah sought to determine whether he was dealing in stolen goods.
Also under scrutiny was Abdullah's rhetoric: He often railed against law enforcement officials and the U.S. government, according to undercover informants who recorded his conversations. Abdullah often said he would go down fighting if authorities sought to apprehend him.
International attention
The case drew international attention as some questioned whether the U.S. government unfairly targeted him because of his religion and beliefs.
But the FBI says Abdullah was with a Muslim group headed by the former H. Rap Brown, known as a black nationalist who preached violent revolution and later converted to Islam. Now known as Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, he is serving a prison sentence for fatally shooting an Atlanta police officer.
The attempted arrest of Abdullah involved at least 66 agents -- including 14 elite agents from the FBI Hostage Rescue Team. Three of the four agents who shot at Abdullah were with that team.
The Justice Department report was overseen by Barry Kowalski, a veteran Justice attorney who previously prosecuted the Los Angeles police officers charged with beating Rodney King in a 1991 case that attracted national attention, said local leaders.
The Justice report cites forensic evidence and witness testimony to reach its conclusion.
"The evidence indicates that neither the FBI agent shooters, nor any other agents, willfully intended to use more force than necessary to accomplish a legitimate law enforcement purpose," the 17-page report concluded. The agents who shot at Abdullah "fired only after Imam Abdullah brandished a concealed handgun and shot toward them. ... They legitimately feared that Imam Abdullah was in a position to cause death or significant injury to another."
The report noted that the agents involved in the shooting have never "been the subject of a civil rights complaint" and have never "previously fired his weapon at another person."
'It is disheartening'
A friend and follower of Abdullah said Wednesday that he was disappointed in the conclusion of the report.
"It is disheartening. ... We don't think this is just," said Akil Fahd, 40, of Detroit. But "everything is in the hands of Allah."
Fahd said that supporters of Abdullah hope to pursue justice in this case through other legal and judicial means.
Detroit FBI Special Agent Sandra Berchtold said Wednesday that the "report accurately reflects what happened that day at the warehouse."
The incident upset some in metro Detroit's sizable Muslim and African-American communities who saw his death as an example of excessive force.
They also have raised questions as to why the FBI and counterterrorism officials spent so much time and resources investigating a case that never resulted in terrorism charges and focused on a man who lived on a poor block in a poor city.
Kowalski and two other attorneys -- one of them Muslim -- with the Department of Justice met at the federal McNamara building on Wednesday as the report was released.
They had a meeting with the family of Abdullah, and they met for almost two hours with community leaders, said Imad Hamad, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
Others at the meeting included Thomas Perez, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division; attorney Michael Steinberg with the American Civil Liberties Union; Ron Scott of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, and Dawud Walid of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Hamad said he appreciates the fact that the Justice Department attorneys flew to Detroit to meet with them. But he said some in the community had concerns.
"The report was seen as one-sided, incomplete, not satisfactory," Hamad said. "The report did not include the testimonies of the other people who were with the imam at the time."
The report notes that followers of Abdullah were asked by their attorney not to testify because of pending criminal charges in the case.
The Justice report said the case will now "be returned to the FBI to complete its administrative review."
The head of the Detroit FBI, Special Agent in Charge Andrew Arena, has said his agents acted appropriately in the shooting.
Contact NIRAJ WARIKOO: 313-223-4792 or warikoo@freepress.com
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