Prosecutors Release Shooting Video Of Man Allegedly Plotting To Kill Pamela Geller

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Law enforcement officials on Monday released grainy footage of the shooting of Usaama Rahim, the terrorist suspect who authorities said was planning to attack anti-Islam activist Pamela Geller and police officers.

The video released on Monday showed, according to authorities, Rahim walking in a CVS parking lot toward a bus stop when he’s surrounded by five or six FBI and Boston Police. The officers seem to take a step back and then Rahim is shot. The video (a frame of which is pictured above), taken by a Burger King surveillance camera, shows Rahim falling to the ground. It’s not clear from the video that Rahim was wiellding a knife but officials said they recovered a knife from the scene of the shooting.

According to The New York Times earlier in June, FBI and Boston police confronted Rahim outside the CVS after they heard him in a phone call talking about beheading police officers. Rahim, when he was confronted, pulled out a knife. Police officers told him to drop the knife and he said “drop yours,” according to an affidavit of the shooting. Rahim moved toward the officers and was shot.

At the press conference where law enforcement officials shared the video, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said that the video was released to prevent rumor or inaccurate information spreading.

“It becomes easier than ever for rumor, speculation and inaccurate information to fill the vacuum if reliable facts aren’t put out rapidly,” Conley said. “For this reason we have agreed some video evidence earlier, when it can illuminate the facts. And when doing so won’t compromise the integrity of the investigation.”

Conley stressed that the video was simply “one piece of evidence among many” and the investigation is still “very active.”

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