U.S.

Boston Terror Suspect’s Shooting Highlights Concerns Over Reach of ISIS

By JESS BIDGOOD and DAVE PHILIPPSJUNE 3, 2015

Police officials and others in Boston prepared to view a video that reportedly showed Usaamah Abdullah Rahim menacing law enforcement officials. CreditPool photo by David L. Ryan

BOSTON — Investigators had been watching Usaamah Abdullah Rahim long enough to know about his avid interest in Islamic State militants, but when they overheard him talking on a cellphone about beheading Massachusetts police officers, they moved in, leading to a confrontation Tuesday morning outside a pharmacy here that left Mr. Rahim dead and once again raised alarms about the influence of foreign extremists on homegrown radicals.

The shooting occurred in the fairly quiet neighborhood of Roslindale on a routine weekday morning, when officials said an F.B.I. agent and a Boston police officer fired on Mr. Rahim after he threatened them with a knife. The shooting quickly and suddenly revealed what officials described as a lengthy terrorism investigation, with several law enforcement agencies looking into a suspected murder plot that involved at least two other people, including a relative of Mr. Rahim’s who was charged Wednesday with conspiracy.

Here in a city that had just finished with the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was sentenced to death a few weeks ago for his role in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, the episode prompted another round of outrage and scrutiny. Coming just a month after two Muslim men with ties to the Islamic State were shot and killed while trying to attack an anti-Islamic gathering in Garland, Tex., the case has also renewed concerns in Washington about the long reach of the Islamic State and other radical groups that have seized on Internet recruitment.

The knife with which Mr. Rahim reportedly menaced law enforcement officials before he was shot. Before the confrontation, Mr. Rahim had been the subject of a lengthy terrorism investigation.CreditMark Garfinkel/Boston Herald, via Associated Press

“These cases are a reminder of the dangers posed by individuals radicalized through social media,” said the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Representative Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas, at a hearing on Wednesday. He added that Mr. Rahim had been under investigation because he was “communicating with and spreading ISIS propaganda online.”

In an arrest affidavit filed on Wednesday afternoon, F.B.I. agents said Mr. Rahim, 26, had been under surveillance since at least late May, when he bought three knives on Amazon.com.

During a recorded phone conversation around May 26, Mr. Rahim called David Wright, whom acquaintances identified as his nephew, and told him he had bought a knife that was “good for carving.” Later in the conversation, Mr. Wright referred to “thinking with your head on your chest,” a phrase the F.B.I. said was “a reference to the practice of some foreign terrorist organizations to behead targets and place their heads on their chests in propaganda videos.”

Initially, the affidavit said, Mr. Rahim was focused on a “planned victim in another state” who was not identified. But in a subsequent conversation on June 2, Mr. Rahim called Mr. Wright and told him he was going to “go after” the “boys in blue,” a reference to police officers. The two referred during the conversation to “going on vacation,” a phrase that the F.B.I. said was code for “committing violent jihad.”

The affidavit said that in their guarded conversations, the two “discussed the motivation for that planned attack,” but the affidavit did not disclose that motivation. Federal investigators said the men had become followers of a radical form of militant Islam.

A law enforcement official said that Mr. Rahim had become radicalized by militant Islam social media sites and that he posed an “imminent threat” on the morning that he was confronted.

Yahya Abdullah Rivero, who attended mosque with Mr. Rahim in Miami, where Mr. Rahim lived from around 2006 until a few years ago, said that the Rahim family was “humble and civilized people,” but that Usaamah Rahim was different. He had “a lot of zeal to guide people to Islam” and, over time, grew more radical, Mr. Rivero said, adding that Mr. Rahim had followed a number of radical Muslim clerics online.

Mr. Rahim moved to Massachusetts, where his mother lives, in 2013 after marrying, Mr. Rivero said.

Mr. Rahim was a religious mentor to his nephew David Wright, who was also known as Dawud Wright, Mr. Rivero said.

At first, the two followed the strict teachings of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mr. Rivero said, but then they “started doing their own thing” after deciding other conservative sects were “too lenient.”

Boston police officers searched homes Wednesday in connection with an investigation into Mr. Rahim, after a confrontation Tuesday in which he was shot dead.CreditKatherine Taylor for The New York Times

As Mr. Rahim’s views grew extreme, Mr. Rivero said he cut off contact with Mr. Rahim.

An F.B.I. agent and a police officer approached Mr. Rahim around 7 a.m. on Tuesday outside a CVS Pharmacy in Roslindale, a middle-class Boston neighborhood. Officials said that after the law enforcement officials identified themselves, Mr. Rahim confronted them with a large military-style knife.

When they told Mr. Rahim to drop his weapon, he responded, “No, you drop yours,” according to the affidavit, and the agent and the officer opened fire. The Boston police commissioner, William Evans, said that in a video recorded at the scene, it was clear that the agent and the officer were backing away from Mr. Rahim just before the shooting. They “would never be retreating unless there was an imminent threat,” Mr. Evans said.

The officer and the agent approached Mr. Rahim seeking to question him, without their weapons drawn, Mr. Evans said. “He was someone we were watching for quite a time — constant dialogue between us and the F.B.I.,” Mr. Evans said.

After the shooting Tuesday, Mr. Rahim was taken to a hospital, where he died.

Mr. Wright was taken into custody in Everett, a working-class Boston suburb, on Tuesday after the shooting.

According to the F.B.I., he waived his right to remain silent and agreed to speak to agents.

The F.B.I. said a third person in Rhode Island, who was not identified, was also involved in the plot. Agents searched a house in Warwick, R.I., on Wednesday, but have not announced any more arrests.

Neighbors in Everett described Mr. Wright as a tall, quiet man who weighed as much as 400 pounds.

Mr. Rahim’s relatives had initially argued that he was shot in the back, insisting that the shooting was unjustified.

Jessica Hedges, a lawyer for David Wright, who officials said conspired with Usaamah Abdullah Rahim in a terrorism plot. CreditKatherine Taylor for The New York Times

But at a news conference held by the Boston police on Wednesday afternoon after they showed a surveillance video of the shooting to a group of clergy members and community leaders, at least one of the people who saw the video, Darnell Williams, said he could “150 percent collaborate” the police account that Mr. Rahim had menaced the agent and the officer with a knife before he was shot.

A group of Muslim leaders who also saw the video later issued a statement that said the video was taken far from the site of the episode and did not clearly show everything that occurred. “It does not appear he was shot in the back,” the statement said, countering the family’s assertion. “No weapons could be identified in the video; neither a knife nor a gun.”

Records show that Mr. Rahim had lived in Massachusetts before moving to Florida for several years, where he was a licensed security guard. The police said he most recently lived in Roslindale.

In 2013, he worked for about a month as a security guard at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, which includes a school and event space in addition to a mosque. “Beyond that interaction, he did not pray regularly at the center, nor was he a volunteer or in any kind of leadership position,” said Cheri Andes, a spokeswoman for the center.

In Mr. Wright’s working-class neighborhood in Everett, a suburb just north of Boston, neighbors said they saw police officers and F.B.I. agents around 7 a.m. Tuesday at City Hall, around the corner from Mr. Wright’s second-floor apartment on Linden Street.

Moments later, neighbors said they saw a SWAT team and about 20 or 30 officers enter through the open front door of the small apartment building where Mr. Wright lived with a woman and two children.

“They were dressed in Army camouflage and carrying a battering ram,” said Jim Brennan, 48, a bricklayer who lives across the street. He said that the officers had carried out several small brown paper bags labeled “evidence,” but that he could not tell what was in them. He said they did not carry out any large items, such as a computer.

Mr. Wright appeared in Boston’s federal court on Wednesday, a towering 25-year-old in sweatpants, a black shirt and handcuffs. A group of several women who identified themselves as his family members were also present in court.

Mr. Wright faces a federal conspiracy charge. A criminal complaint charges that he conspired with Mr. Rahim to hinder a federal investigation by destroying electronic evidence. Mr. Wright faces up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. He was remanded to the custody of the federal marshal service until a detention hearing June 19.

Mr. Wright’s lawyer, Jessica Hedges, said Mr. Wright had spent his entire life in the Boston area. “I would urge the government, F.B.I. and law enforcement in investigating this case and related cases to be as transparent as possible, and in enforcing the law, to abide by the law,” Ms. Hedges said. “We have serious concerns about that already.”