Local Islamic society: Police shooting victim under FBI surveillance not a regular
Two local Islamic groups said they were saddened by the news that police shot and killed Usaama Rahim on Tuesday morning in Roslindale. But they said the 26-year-old, under surveillance by an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force was not a regular at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center in Roxbury.
According to the society’s executive director, Yusufi Vali, Rahim was hired by the ISBCC’s security firm and worked part-time as a security guard at the center for a month in mid-2013.
“However, what we do know for certain is that he neither regularly prayed at the center nor volunteered nor served in any leadership positions,’’ Vali told Boston.com.
Vali noted that the ISBCC is the largest center in New England and has thousands of weekly visitors.
A woman who said she was acquainted with Rahim had told The Boston Globe she met him and his wife at the Roxbury center.
A Boston police officer and FBI agent shot and killed Rahim outside a Roslindale CVS, after he approached them with a military-style knife, officials said. He had been under 24-hour surveillance, according to the FBI.
Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said the shooting was captured by surveillance video.
In a joint-statement released Tuesday afternoon, the ISBCC in Roxbury and the Islamic Society of Boston in Cambridge said police had invited them and other groups to view the footage of the incident Wednesday.
Their full statement:
As religious institutions serving the Boston Muslim community, the ISB and ISBCC leadership are saddened to hear of the shooting of Usaama Rahim earlier today. Boston police have invited our leadership, along with other members of the Boston Muslim and Black communities, to view surveillance footage of the incident tomorrow morning. This tragedy has yielded many important questions that merit additional attention, and while we cannot expect all questions to be answered tomorrow morning, our hope is that greater clarity and transparency will bring some peace to our congregation and the Boston community at large.
Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office spokesman Jake Wark confirmed the surveillance video would be shown to clerical, civil rights, and community leaders, as part of a larger policy to clamp down on unfounded speculation and increase public confidence regarding police-involved fatal shootings.
In cases in which the officer is not criminally charged, Wark said the video — along with the entire investigative file — will be made public. He said the decision on when that would occur would be made “in the coming days,’’ but he couldn’t predict when.
Wark noted that their policy of releasing shooting videos had been accelerated in recent months, pointing to the shooting of Officer John Moynihan by Angelo West, who was then fatally shot by police.
Photos: Police-involved shooting in Roslindale
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