Dead Boston man planned to behead cops, activist Pam Geller

Usaamah Rahim, killed by police officers after lunging at them with a knife, wanted to wage violent jihad, court says

A 26-year-old security guard shot dead by police and the FBI in Boston planned to behead American police officers at random to wage violent jihad, court papers said Wednesday.

Rahim at first had plotted to behead Pamela Geller, a Jewish activist and conservative blogger who is known as a vocal critic of Islam, law enforcement sources told CNN television.

Usaamah Rahim purchased three military-style knives and a sharpener from Amazon.com before allegedly deciding to “go after” the “boys in blue” because they were “the easiest target.”

But he was killed outside a pharmacy at 7:00 am on Tuesday. Police said he refused to drop his weapon and lunged towards five retreating officers, who then shot him to save their lives.

An alleged associate, David Wright, 25, appeared in court Wednesday charged with conspiring to obstruct a federal investigation.

He was allegedly fully informed of Rahim’s plans and ordered him to delete his phone and computer data, and destroy his smartphone to prevent it falling into the hands of law enforcement.

Community members and police officials pray at the Boston Police Department headquarters before seeing a video, Wednesday, June 3, 2015, in Boston, of a fatal police shooting on Tuesday, in the city's Roslindale neighborhood. (David Ryan/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool) — Community members and police officials pray at the Boston Police Department headquarters before seeing a video, Wednesday, June 3, 2015, in Boston, of a fatal police shooting on Tuesday, in the city’s Roslindale neighborhood. (David Ryan/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool)

Court papers said Rahim, who lived in Boston, had been “planning to engage in a violent attack in the United States” since May 26 — little over a week before his death.

He allegedly ordered three knives from Amazon, which were delivered to his home, and discussed his plan with Wright and a third person on a beach in Rhode Island last Sunday.

Wright allegedly told the FBI the first plan was to behead an unnamed victim in another state, but Rahim telephoned him at 5:00 am on the morning of his death to change his mind.

Instead he told Wright that he was going to “go after” the “boys in blue,” and randomly kill police officers in Massachusetts — either on Tuesday or Wednesday — the court papers said.

It was with one of the knives purchased from Amazon that Rahim lunged toward officers two hours later, court papers alleged.

Wright was arrested overnight and accused with conspiring with Rahim to destroy, mutilate, conceal and cover up his smartphone in order to obstruct an investigation, which is a federal offense.

In this Tuesday, June 2, 2015 photo, law enforcement officials lift a knife that was believed to be held by Usaama Rahim, who police shot earlier in the day on Washington Street, in Boston's Roslindale neighborhood. Rahim was shot by members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force after police say he lunged at them with a knife when they approached him to question him outside a Boston pharmacy. Boston police and FBI officials say Rahim had been under 24-hour surveillance after they received some "terrorist-related information." (Mark Garfinkel/Boston Herald via AP) — In this Tuesday, June 2, 2015 photo, law enforcement officials lift a knife that was believed to be held by Usaama Rahim, who police shot earlier in the day on Washington Street, in Boston’s Roslindale neighborhood. (Mark Garfinkel/Boston Herald via AP)

Geller, the conservative blogger who police say was Rahim’s first prospective target, was in the spotlight last month when a security officer stopped an attack at a contest she organized for drawings of the Prophet Muhammad in Garland, Texas.

In 2010, Geller famously led a campaign to prevent the opening of an Islamic community center blocks from the World Trade Center site, calling it the “ground zero mosque.” She has filed numerous lawsuits across the US in recent years, many of them related to her attempts to display incendiary ads in public transit systems. Most recently, New York City’s transit authority banned all political advertising after a judge upheld Geller’s right to run bus ads about Islam that said, “Killing Jews is worship that draws us close to Allah.”

Not shot in the back

If convicted, Wright faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said there had been intelligence for “weeks” that military and law enforcement lives were at threat.

Authorities put out “several notices” about the threat of attack on law enforcement and military bases, he added.

The court papers made no mention of when, where or how Rahim may have become susceptible to extremist Islamist thought.

A senior official warned last week that the United States launches a new investigation into suspected sympathizers of the Islamic State extremist group in Iraq and Syria almost every day.

On Wednesday, a Muslim community leader shown a video of Rahim’s death, said there was no evidence to back up a claim from his family that he had been shot in the back as he waited for the bus.

“It was not at a bus stop. He was not shot in the back,” Imam Abdullah Faaruuq told reporters.

It was not clear what happened and the knife was not visible but “he was approaching them. They did back up,” Faaruuq acknowledged.

Evans said the video showed five law enforcement officers retreating with their hands up, and that witness and officer accounts had detailed commands on the suspect to drop his weapon.

“You see them go a good 15 yards with a threat coming at them. We can all agree. The weaponry is not clear, but with five officers coming at them, there was no doubt in the video,” said Evans.

AP contributed to this report.