By Ed White
Associated Press Writer
DETROIT (AP) -- Michigan's attorney general said last Thursday that he won't file criminal charges against FBI agents who shot a Detroit mosque leader 20 times, killing him, during a raid last year on a suburban warehouse.
It is "undisputed" that Luqman Ameen Abdullah fired at agents, resisted arrest and rejected demands to surrender, Attorney General Mike Cox said.
"Under Michigan law, law enforcement agents are justified in using deadly force in these types of situations, and therefore we found no crimes," Cox said in a written statement.
Some leaders in the local Muslim community have questioned whether the agents used excessive force. Besides being shot 20 times, Abdullah had wounds that an independent forensic pathologist concluded were caused by an FBI dog killed during the raid. Some have speculated that Abdullah may have fired his gun trying to defend himself from the dog.
A message seeking comment was left with the FBI.
The FBI says Abdullah, 53, was a leader of a radical Sunni group that wants to create an Islamic state within the U.S. His family has denied allegations that he was anti-government. He was killed nearly a year ago as agents tried to arrest him in a sting operation involving stolen goods.
Dearborn police were the lead investigators in Abdullah's death because it occurred in that city. Cox said his office received video recordings, the results of 82 interviews and other documents from Dearborn and the FBI.
Dawud Walid, director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said he wants to read the attorney general's report before commenting. But he repeated his call for all evidence to be released to the public.
The Justice Department's civil rights division has also been investigating Abdullah's death.
Published: Mon, Oct 4, 2010
