Family of Black Muslim Leader Sues Federal Agents: Officers Put Dogs on Unarmed Black Man who had Surrendered - Shot him 21 Times

From  [HERE] and [MORE] The family of a Black Muslim leader in Detroit shot to death in a raid at an east Dearborn warehouse in 2009 is suing the FBI, claiming that his rights were violated. The suit filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit alleges an unarmed Imam Luqman Abdullah was shot 30 times as he tried to protect himself from a police dog, according to the Free Press.

The claims stem from the affidavit of Muhammad Abdul Salaam, a Detroit man who witnessed the raid and shooting. Abdullah, aka Christopher Thomas, was shot at least 21 times by FBI agents during a raid at the warehouse at 5171 Miller Road, just north of Michigan Avenue, just after noon Oct. 28, 2009. An FBI dog was shot twice in its neck and also died. A house on Tireman in Detroit also was raided.

The suit, filed Oct. 26 in U.S. District Court in Detroit, maintains that Abdullah did not display a gun; government reports written in the incident’s wake claim he fired a pistol.

The FBI was investigating the sale of stolen truck parts. Twenty-nine agents were in the warehouse, which was under the FBI’s control on an undercover basis, when Abdullah and four counterparts arrived; 66 agents were involved in the operation. Dearborn police were not part of the tactical operation or shooting.

Abdullah and the four others were loading boxes at a loading dock when FBI agents set off noise and flash bang devices and ordered the five men to get on the ground. The suit said that all five immediately showed their hands and got face down with their arms stretched in front of them. “Abdullah and the four men did not pose a threat to the unidentified FBI agents’ safety,” the suit said.

An FBI dog named Freddy “repeatedly attacked and mauled Abdullah,” the suit says, and Abdullah rolled onto his right side, grabbing the dog. The dog attacked his face, breaking his upper jaw, the suit said. When he was struggling with the dog, the agents fired the 21 shots, striking Abdullah’s chest, abdomen, hip, leg, groin and back, “causing his painful death,” the suit said.

The agents “purposely, knowingly, recklessly, improperly and without cause used excessive force,” the suit said

Muhammad Abdul Salaam, one of the other four men, said in an affidavit that Abdullah did not pull a gun on the agents, and that no warning was given that the dog would be released.

Abdullah’s family is suing for wrongful death and violation of his Fourth and Fifth amendment rights of liberty and life with due process, the right to not be subject to excessive force and the right to personal safety, medical care and protection.

They are seeking damages for medical, funeral and burial expenses, and pain and suffering.

The initial FBI report said that 11 defendants, including Abdullah, were part of a group known as the Ummah (“brotherhood”), a Sunni group mostly composed of blacks who were converts to Islam and wanted to establish a separate Shariah law-governed state in the U.S.

The group’s leader was Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, aka H. Rapp Brown, who is serving a life sentence for killing two police officers in Georgia. The group reportedly promoted violence against police officers and trained members to use guns and martial arts in anticipation of government violence, according to the FBI.

Dearborn police investigated the shooting because it happened in the city. The investigation took several months because it required the help of several law enforcement and other governmental agencies, and officers interviewed about 85 witnesses. The 300-page report was forwarded to the Michigan Attorney General’s Office, which concluded in fall 2010 that no state law was broken.

“My office’s review found undisputed evidence that (Abdullah) resisted arrest and fired a gun first in the direction of the agents,” then-Attorney General Mike Cox said in a written statement. “Under Michigan law, law enforcement agents are justified in using deadly force in these types of situations, and, therefore, we found no crimes.”

The report said that after the dog began biting Abdullah, he pulled out a pistol and started shooting at the dog and agents.

The U.S. Justice Department released a 17-page report soon after saying that the shooting of Abdullah, an imam at Masjid Al-Haqq in Detroit, was justified and no further investigation was necessary.