Details coming but here’s what we know so far:
DETROIT - Federal authorities in Detroit said they fatally shot the leader of a radical fundamentalist Sunni Islam group on Wednesday after he failed to surrender on several criminal charges.
Luqman Ameen Abdullah was killed while exchanging gunfire with federal agents at a warehouse in Dearborn, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
The FBI was trying to arrrest Abdullah and 10 followers on numerous charges, including conspiracy to sell stolen goods and illegal possession and sale of firearms.
FBI and Justice Department officials told NBC News that the operation was not terror-related, but aimed at dismantling the group’s alleged operation. Abdullah had been under investigation for two years, NBC News reported.
Abdullah, also known as Christopher Thomas, preached anti-government rhetoric, and some of his followers converted to Islam while in prison, FBI officials said.
“He was anti-everything — anti-government, anti-police, you name it,” one federal law enforcement official told NBC News.
The primary mission of Abdullah’s group is to establish a separate sovereign Islamic state governed by Sunni law, according to FBI documents. Abdullah called on his followers to engage in an offensive jihad, NBC affiliate WDIV in Detroit reported.
*Update*
Sadly, an FBI dog died during one of the raids.
More on the Islamist group in question:
Group aimed to create an Islamic state
The men arrested in the raid were part of a Detroit mosque where a leader called for “an offensive jihad,” according to the criminal complaint.
Luqman Abdullah “regularly preaches anti-government and anti-law enforcement rhetoric,” the complaint said.
The complaint says that Abdullah is “a highly placed leader of a nationwide radical fundamentalist Sunni group consisting primarily of African-Americans, some of whom converted to Islam while they were serving sentences in various prisons across the United States. Their primary mission is to establish a separate, sovereign Islamic state (“The Ummah”) within the borders of the United States, governed by Shariah law.”
‘It was like a movie scene for a minute’
Shadi Saad, the owner of Wellcare Pharmacy on Oakman in Dearborn, said he stepped outside before lunchtime to see several people in FBI jackets with guns going toward the warehouse across the street. He heard noises like shots and a short time later a helicopter descended.
“It was like a movie scene for a minute,” he said. He opened his business, he said, just 10 days ago. “This isn’t the way I wanted it to start.”
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