Not that this will end their claims of victimhood and attempts to demonize the police. “Authorities release video of Boston terror suspect armed with large knife, shot dead by cops; family remains skeptical,” by Sasha Goldstein, New York Daily News, June 8, 2015:
Grainy surveillance video captures the moment a Boston terror suspect, armed with a military-style knife, was surrounded and shot dead by law enforcement officers during a confrontation last week.
The Boston Police Department and Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office took the unusual step of releasing the video to the public Monday, just six days after 26-year-old Usaamah Rahim was shot near a bus stop at a shopping plaza in Boston’s Roslindale section.
Video is generally withheld until an investigation is complete, officials said at a news conference Monday morning.
Authorities say the clip’s release came after misinformation and rumor began to circulate shortly after the shooting, headed by Rahim’s brother, who claimed Rahim had been shot in the back while speaking with his father on a cell phone.
Police said neither claim is true and the video appears to back the authorities.
The video shows the moment Usaamah Rahim was shot three times and falls to the ground after he was within striking distance of an officer, Boston police Commissioner William Evans said.
The clip, taken from across a parking lot on a rainy morning around 7 a.m. last Tuesday, shows Rahim walk to the bus stop, trailed by two plainclothes law enforcement officers.
An FBI agent and a Boston police officer, part of a Joint Terrorism Task Force that was surveilling the suspect around the clock, both opened fire after Rahim “lunged” with the knife following repeated requests for him to drop the all-black blade, police Commissioner William Evans said.
At least four law enforcement officers can be seen on the video. But it’s hard to make out when weapons were drawn, or if Rahim had the knife in his hand. There is no audio so it is unclear what kind of discussion proceeded the gunfire.
The surveillance team approached Rahim after intercepting a “communication” that morning that alluded to an imminent attack, FBI Agent Vincent Lisi said.
Usaamah Rahim had been under 24-7 surveillance for weeks before he was shot.
Rahim had purchased three large knives online in the weeks ahead of the confrontation, and had spoken of taking out the “boys in blue” during phone calls with his nephew, 25-year-old David Wright.
Wright was arrested at his Everett, Mass., apartment shortly after the shooting last week.
Rahim had also plotted to behead conservative blogger Pamela Geller, who has been in the spotlight for her inflammatory “Draw Muhammad” contest in Texas last month. That art show drew two would-be jihadi attackers who were shot dead in the suburban Dallas parking lot outside the event.
The June 2 video shows Rahim “was well within striking distance of one of the officers with the large military” knife, Evans said.
“He was intent, as the affidavit says, on getting a boy in a blue, and I don’t think at this point that he was going to go down very easy,” Evans said. “This unraveled very quickly and I think they (the officers) made the right call. He was intent on taking out one of us and it was either us or them and thankfully, it wasn’t one us.”
Police say a third person may be involved in the terror plot and last week carried out a third search in Warwick, Rhode Island, but no arrest was made.