Police Brutality / Individual record
Usaamah Rahim
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Usaamah Rahim in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2015-06-02 in Roslindale, MA. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-188
- Incident date
- June 2, 2015
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Roslindale, MA
- Agency
- Federal Bureau of Investigation; Boston Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 26
What happened
Usaamah Abdullah Rahim, 26, was killed by a Boston police officer and FBI task-force agent in the parking lot of a CVS in Roslindale on June 2, 2015. Rahim had been under surveillance during a terrorism investigation. Officers said he approached them with a large knife, ignored orders to drop it and continued forward as they retreated, prompting them to fire. His family and their attorney questioned the decision to approach him and requested independent scrutiny of whether less dangerous tactics were available. The Suffolk County District Attorney reviewed video and other evidence and announced in August 2016 that the officers acted in legally justified self-defense; no charges followed. That charging determination is distinct from the family's criticism of the approach and tactics.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 507
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- knife
- Flee status (source)
- not
- Agency IDs (source)
- 3609;3
Sources & records
- Primary source
- Additional source
- Methodology and national police killings trackingMapping Police Violence · Dataset/methodology
- Fatal Force v2 — fatal on-duty police shootings, 2015–2024The Washington Post · Dataset