A 26-year-old terror suspect under FBI surveillance was shot dead on Tuesday outside a pharmacy in Boston after brandishing a knife at officers, officials said.
The FBI refused to comment on possible allegations against Usaama Rahim, but police said he refused orders to drop the knife before being shot outside a CVS store.
Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said Rahim was wanted “for terrorist-related information,” but refused to comment on US news reports that he had been radicalized by extremists in Syria.
Photo: AP
“We believed he was a threat,” Evans said. “He was someone we were watching for quite a little time.”
Boston police officers and the FBI said they approached Rahim for questioning at the scene. The FBI confirmed that they had no warrant for his arrest and no intention to take him into custody.
Evans said police had video of the suspect “coming up” at officers while they were in retreat and said the suspect had been shot twice — once in the torso and once in the abdomen.
“Their lives were in danger when two officers discharge their weapons,” Evans said, showing reporters a photograph of the knife that he said the suspect brandished.
“Both the FBI and the Boston police did everything they could possibly do to get this individual to drop his knife,” Evans said.
However, Rahim’s brother, imam and Muslim educator Ibrahim Rahim, said his younger brother was shot three times in the back by police as he waited for a bus to go to work.
“We understand the need 4 info, but ask that the press 2 give us time to grieve as a family,” he wrote on Twitter. “Once we have had an opportunity to grieve, we will make a family statement.”
US media reported that Rahim was of Middle Eastern descent. His older brother graduated from college in Medina, Saudi Arabia.
FBI Boston Special Agent in Charge Vincent Lisi said Usaama Rahim had been under 24-hour surveillance by Boston and Massachusetts state police, and the US Joint Terrorism Task Force.
“We considered him armed and dangerous,” Lisi told reporters.
He refused to give any details about the probe, but said there was no concern for public safety.
Lisi said agents approached Rahim to “interview him and talk to him about his intentions and some other matters.”
“I am not going to comment on what his plans were,” he said.
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