Family members plan to bury Usaamah Rahim on Friday, according the family’s place of worship, the Mosque for Praising Allah. Details of the services for the terror suspect, who was shot dead this week in Boston after allegedly wielding a knife at police, were not made public.
Once he is buried, police will release the surveillance video of Rahim’s shooting to the public, after holding it back per the family’s request.
The family screened it Thursday, and it seemed to calm their initial suspicions about Rahim’s shooting death.
His brother, Ibrahim Rahim, originally posted to social media that police had gunned down Usaamah Rahim for no reason, shooting him in the back while he spoke on the phone with their father.
But after seeing the video, Ibrahim Rahim acknowledged that his initial post was not correct, and he asked the public not to jump to conclusions. But he still wanted to know more about his brother’s death. “The facts are still coming in. We need more information,” he told CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”
He said he had no indication that his brother was hatching any kind of terror plan.
Terror network?
Community leaders who saw the images confirmed to the media much of what Boston police had said — that FBI and police officers confronting Rahim on Tuesday initially did not have their guns drawn as he approached them.
The FBI says tapped phone conversations support its claim that Usaamah Rahim was about to carry out a knife attack against police at any moment, which is why the joint anti-terror team of federal and local officers confronted him when they did.
While the public awaits a chance to view the surveillance footage firsthand, investigators are working to fit together other pieces of the puzzle — in particular how deep Rahim’s support network was.
‘Like’ ISIS
Did terror group ISIS enjoy more allegiance from him than just his “like” on Facebook, and have significant influence on him? His social media posts showed admiration for radical Islam, but were sparse and nonpolitical.
Or was his support limited to two associates who alleged knew about and encouraged his alleged terror attack plan?
At least one of the men connected to the plot was being encouraged to launch an attack by people connected to ISIS, who were communicating from overseas, two U.S. officials with knowledge of the investigation said. But they don’t believe ISIS helped hatch a specific plan.
Beheading target Geller
Authorities arrested David Wright, a man Rahim called his cousin, and whose conversations with Rahim the FBI recorded. Wright waved his Miranda rights before questioning, FBI agent Joseph Galietta said in an affidavit.
Wright told Galietta that he and an associate from Rhode Island had talked with Rahim about an attack plan. And Wright had approved of it.
Investigators have yet to name that Rhode Island associate. A court charged Wright with obstructing a federal investigation, after he allegedly destroyed evidence on Rahim’s smart phone. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison if convicted.
Rahim had initially set his sights on an ISIS-style beheading, and his chosen victim, according to law enforcement officials, was conservative blogger Pamela Geller.
The high-profile Islam critic had organized a Prophet Mohammed cartoon drawing contest in Garland, Texas, last month. Two men tried to shoot participants at that event, but an off-duty police officer working security shot them dead.
“They are coming after me for violating the Sharia, for violating blasphemy laws, and they mean to come after everyone,” she said. “Drawing a cartoon, an innocuous cartoon, warrants chopping my head off? That’s too far. I just don’t understand this.”
Since the Texas incident, Geller said, she has been guarded 24 hours a day.
‘Boys in blue’
But Rahim got impatient about his target, the FBI said, and focused on a much more accessible one: police officers.
“I’m just going to, ah, go after them, those boys in blue. Cause, ah, it’s the easiest target,” Rahim told Wright, in a telephone conversation that Galietta listened to.
Rahim referred to his plan to carry out violent jihad as “going on vacation.” He said he’d be going soon, right where he was in Massachusetts, and Wright told him he should make out a will, the affidavit said.
The FBI had been keeping tabs on Rahim for a couple of years, and in the 10 days before his shooting, the agency watched him 24 hours a day, it said. Rahim had ordered military-grade fighting knives online. Officers had intercepted and X-rayed at least one delivery.
Said ‘his goodbyes’
About two hours after the phone conversation with Wright, officers decided it was time to move.
Just before they arrived, Rahim called his father to say “his goodbyes,” a law enforcement official said. Investigators heard the conversation.
They believed Rahim was going to board a public bus with his military knife. But the FBI and Boston police team approached him in a parking lot ahead of time.
Rahim pulled a knife and went after them, they said, and officers drew their weapons and shot him dead.