Court dismisses suit against FBI agent and Boston cop for fatally shooting ISIS jihadi who plotted to behead Pamela Geller

Usaamah Rahim was the Boston jihadi who, along with his coreligionists, plotted to behead me; he instead tried to behead Boston police officers. As you can see from the account below, he defied officers from the officers and was deliberately trying to escalate the situation. What happened to him is what everyone knows happens in such situations. This his family has no case whatsoever. Note, meanwhile, how Universal Hub, the source of the story below, subtly tries to justify this would-be murderer’s actions by referring to “anti-Muslim radical Pamela Geller.” Now it’s “radical,” as well as “anti-Muslim,” to stand for individual rights, the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and the equality of rights before the law. This shameful propaganda is near-universal in the establishment media, and fosters a dangerous complacency, as well as opposition to the freedom of speech, among the people.

“Court dismisses suit against FBI agent and Boston cop for fatally shooting suspected ISIS terrorist in a Roslindale parking lot,” Universal Hub, October 21, 2022:

A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that two law-enforcement officers who fatally shot a man in a Roslindale parking lot as he walked toward them with a large knife, taunting them, are protected from a lawsuit by the man’s family because of “qualified immunity” – they were acting in the course of their job to protect themselves and bystanders and had no reason to believe they were doing anything wrong.

Story continues below advertisement

In a 2-1 decision, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston agreed with a request from the two to dismiss the lawsuit by the family of Usaamah Rahim.

Rahim’s family had charged the officers violated his Fourth Amendment rights by shooting him to death on the morning of June 2, 2015 in the parking lot of the CVS on Washington Street, because they did not know he was holding a large knife and they failed to try to take other possible, less lethal actions, such as stopping him earlier or first getting a warrant to seize the knife.

Rahim was already being monitored by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task for hatching a plan to travel to New York with others to murder anti-Muslim radical Pamela Geller. Early that morning, agents overheard him on a phone call to another cell member saying he couldn’t wait and would instead act locally to take out some cops. The FBI agent and the BPD cop – working with the task force – were directed to Washington Street, to try to prevent him from boarding a bus to Forest Hills from a stop in front of the CVS.

Justices Sandra Lynch and Gustavo Gelpí summarized what happened between Rahim and the two officers, identified only as John Doe 1 and John Doe 2, after Rahim walked to the bus stop from his apartment on nearby Blue Ledge Drive:

Shortly after 7:00 a.m., the surveillance team watched Rahim leave his apartment and walk toward the nearby bus stop on Washington Street. As Rahim walked toward the bus stop, he placed a call on his cell phone, speaking first with his brother, Muhammad Rahim, and then with his father, Abdulla Rahim. Rahim told his brother: “Unfortunately, you will not be seeing me again.” The record does not reveal whether the officers planning to intercept Rahim were aware of the contents of this conversation. As Rahim approached the bus stop, still on the phone, he was approached by Doe 1, Doe 2, and other members of the surveillance team. The record is unclear as to whether the officers identified themselves and whether they approached with their weapons already drawn.

Rahim’s own phone then recorded the exchange between him and the two law-enforcement officers. They told him to put his hands up, but he refused, and then they told him to drop whatever he had in his hand. He told them to drop their guns. He began advancing on him. They retreated. They again told him to drop the object in his hand. He again refused and kept walking towards them, telling them to drop their guns. At one point, he yelled, “Come on! Won’t you shoot me?” After several such exchanges and continued advances by Rahim, the officers were at one edge of the parking lot.

Rahim kept advancing and came within twenty-five feet of the officers. Just seconds before the shooting, Rahim had refused to put his hands up, had refused to drop what was in his hand, had taunted the officers telling them to drop what was in their hands, and had taunted them more with his “Come on!” statement. An objective officer would conclude Rahim had chosen to escalate the situation and that Rahim was an increasing threat. And Rahim’s actions were consistent with his words: he kept advancing on the officers, despite their attempts by retreating to not let him close the distance. When he had come close enough to them to be a lethal threat to the officers and others, they had split-second decisions to make about what was needed to stop him. And two officers almost simultaneously reached the same decision. Doe 1 fired twice and Doe 2 fired once. Rahim was hit. The entire encounter unfolded over about thirty seconds.

The majority on the court then analyzed each step of the interaction leading to the shooting and concluded the officers were protected by the concept of qualified immunity.

We hold independently that the officers are entitled to qualified immunity because objectively reasonable officers in their position would not have understood their actions to violate the law. … We hold further that a reasonable officer in this situation would have understood Rahim to have a lethal knife in his hands. We also hold that a reasonable officer, on the undisputed facts, would have understood Rahim’s actions to show that he had every intention to use this knife to kill the officers and, if they were unsuccessful in stopping him, to kill other people.

Chief Judge David Barron dissented from the ruling, saying it was premature to dismiss the case since the family’s lawyers had not yet had a chance to question the agent and the officer.

Although he acknowledged it seemed like there was strong case that the two had gone to the parking lot to intercept a man who had plotted to behead somebody and who was likely armed with a large knife when he moved toward them, the statements had not been put to the test through the sort of adversarial questioning that might come in discovery or at trial….

The Truth Must be Told

Your contribution supports independent journalism

Please take a moment to consider this. Now, more than ever, people are reading Geller Report for news they won't get anywhere else. But advertising revenues have all but disappeared. Google Adsense is the online advertising monopoly and they have banned us. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have blocked and shadow-banned our accounts. But we won't put up a paywall. Because never has the free world needed independent journalism more.

Everyone who reads our reporting knows the Geller Report covers the news the media won't. We cannot do our ground-breaking report without your support. We must continue to report on the global jihad and the left's war on freedom. Our readers’ contributions make that possible.

Geller Report's independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our work is critical in the fight for freedom and because it is your fight, too.

Please contribute here.

or

Make a monthly commitment to support The Geller Report – choose the option that suits you best.

• $25.00 here
• $50.00 here
• $75.00 here
• $100.00 here
• $250.00 here

5 3 votes

Article Rating

21 Comments

Oldest

Newest Most Voted

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Kuffar

1 year ago

So. The poor little thug got what he had coming. What I would like to know is who voted to prosecute the officers in the 2-1 ruling. Whoever that is needs to be removed.

24

TomSJr

1 year ago

Reply to  Kuffar

IT’S NYC. They support illegal aliens, no bail, and releasing CRIMINALS immediately, so it should be no surprise that the D.A.’s office IS ALSO CRIMINAL. They should all be DISBARRED for wasting the tax payer monies and for NOT FOLLOWING THEIR OWN LAWS.

13

D

Laddyboy

1 year ago

Reply to  Kuffar

DISBARRED!! Not just removed! Also, there is an action for their BREAKING their OATH OF OFFICE!!!!

4

TOMSJR

1 year ago

Reply to  Kuffar

IT’S NYC………….guess. I believe every Asst. D.A., except one, DOES NOT FOLLOW THE LAWS. They skirt them and bend them to fit their own agenda. HOPEFULLY, WHEN HOCHUL IS REPLACED BY AN ACTUAL LIBERTY-LOVING GOVERNOR, HE WILL LOOK INTO THESE DEMONIC D.A.s WHO NEED TO BE DISBARRED.

1

Snowedin

1 year ago

They need to round them all up and put them on a ship that is designed to sink when it reaches a certain depth in the ocean.

9

TOMSJR

1 year ago

Reply to  Snowedin

IF these D.A.s want to arrest COPS FOR ACTUALLY DOING THEIR JOBS, maybe they should instead, be shipped over to IRAN where they can defend Muslims because there is no liberty THERE.

1

VMS

1 year ago

The generally accepted “magic number” is 21 feet, below which, if a reasonably athletic person with a knife decides to rush a person with a pistol, the person with the knife will prevail. The lawyer that took the case for the family should be disbarred and monetarily sanctioned by the court. Only a CAIR lawyer or a flaming liberal lawyer would take such a case. There is no set of facts that could be proven that would allow the plaintiff to prevail in this case. Qualified immunity is a doctrine that allows a court to dismiss a case right after its onset, on purely legal grounds without getting into the merits of the claims. It’s a controversial doctrine because it doesn’t always work to serve justice as it did in this case. For example, say a hysterical kid who is carrying a cell phone runs toward the cops because he was just attacked in the park, and the cops gun him down, verily thinking that the cell phone is a knife. The cops would have the same qualified immunity in that case as they did for Usaamah Rahim.

But in Usaamah Rahim’s case, all’s well that ends well!!!

11

Jeffrey

1 year ago

I am just so glad that these horrible people who have plotted against the lovely, fearless, and truthful Pamela Geller have been stopped!!!

19

Snowedin

1 year ago

Reply to  Jeffrey

This one may have been stopped, but I would venture to say that there is someone else to take his place.

6

D

End PC

1 year ago

Those Islamic terrorists were intending a slaughter of many at the event. But their relatives get to sue for their being stopped? I think their citizenship deserve to be be revoked – if they are citizens.

12

Snowedin

1 year ago

Reply to  End PC

Revoke their citizenship and deport them.

10

vinnynewyork

1 year ago

Heroes. God saved Pamela. p.s. Who will have to round up the hundreds to terrorists entering through the Biden – Harris -Mayorkas border wall sieve? May it be Donald Trump upon his return to the White House.

10

Katman

1 year ago

The world will NOT mourn over his death. He got what he deserved!
I am thrilled that Pam was protected as I am fan of this courageous, brilliant woman.

9

Snailmailtrucker

1 year ago

Adios MFer !

2

Snailmailtrucker

1 year ago

I love a story with a Happy ending !

MORE PLEASE… BILLIONS MORE !

5

D

Bikinis not Burkas

1 year ago

Why are the adherents of the MURDEROUS IDEOLOGY of ISLAM using man made law it’s Haram!

3

TOMSJR

1 year ago

MAYBE the Feds should arrest the entire MUSLIM family and take everything they have BECAUSE of their frivolous lawsuit and when they do, use that money to pay for the time and resources THE FEDS WASTED TRYING TO DEFEND THEMSELVES FROM A DEMONIC JIHADIST?

HEY MUSLIMS:
You don’t want to DIE, then STOP ALL YOUR HATRED AND EVIL AGAINST LIBERTY, FREEDOM, AND AMERICA! We don’t want you here if you cannot BE AMERICAN, so why do we care what you want in ISLAM, an ideology OF SATANIC EVIL?????

ISLAM IS PURE EVIL CREATED BY SATAN TO GAIN HIS PUPPETS. Come to my house and you will see what happens.

Last edited 1 year ago by TomSJr

0

D

Robert Kahlcke

1 year ago

This scumbag SWINE (pig) should be BEHEADED, the same as muslims behead babies.

0

Unforgiven56

1 year ago

Play terrorist games, win terrorist prizes.

1

D

Hardrock

1 year ago

This guy was serious. That knife he was in possession of, is an Ontario Knives SP-6 Combat Knife, it has an 8 inch blade. They are made in New York State. It’s no paring knife, it’s designed to kill. I own one myself. Those cops did the right thing. Thankfully they were able to stop him.

0

D

Merchantseamen

1 year ago

One less to suck on the taxpayers teat. Looks like a rat chewed half his ear off. Maybe daddy cut it off.

0