BOSTON — A man fatally shot by police in Boston on Tuesday was under 24-hour surveillance, FBI Special Agent in Charge Vincent B. Lisi said. The suspect, identified as Usaama Rahim, 26, was shot and killed after waving a large military knife at officers, authorities said.
“As of right now, we don’t think there is any concern for public safety,” Lisi said.
Rahim was a subject of a terror investigation involving suspected Islamist extremists and belonged to an ad hoc network, law enforcement sources said.
He had been under surveillance by the U.S. Joint Terrorism Task Force, officials said.
Ibrahim Rahim, an imam at the Lighthouse Mosque in Oakland, California, earlier posted about his brother’s death on social media.
Ibrahim Rahim wrote on Facebook that his brother was shot while at a bus stop on his way to work. He asked for prayers for his brother.
In a 2013 interview with CNN, Ibrahim Rahim voiced his objection to presiding over the funeral of Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev. “We don’t want people looking at us as if though we are empathetic in any way to what has happened at the hands of this man and his brother,” he said.
Ibrahim Rahim said his brother was on the phone with their father and was shot three times in the back during the confrontation.
The FBI-led task force had been watching Rahim and two associates believed to be radicalized by ISIS and other extremist influences, according to a law enforcement official. Rahim had been monitored for at least a couple years.
The FBI noted a recent change in the suspect’s behavior, including social media threats against police, which prompted them to try to approach him Tuesday, according to the official.
Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said the shooting occurred at about 7 a.m. after officers and FBI agents confronted Rahim, who suddenly turned around with a large black knife and lunged at officers and federal agents. The officers had not drawn their weapons at that point.
The officers retreated and ordered the man to put down the weapon before they opened fire, Evans said. The shooting was captured by surveillance video and observed by witnesses.
“Unfortunately, he came at the officers and, you know, they do what they were trained to do and, unfortunately, they had to take a life,” Evans said.
Rahim was struck in the torso and abdomen.
A Boston police officer and a federal agent opened fire on the suspect, Evans said.
The shooting is under investigation.
