Michigan AG won't prosecute agents in Luqman Abdullah case

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox said Thursday his office will not prosecute the FBI agents who shot and killed Luqman Ameen Abdullah during an Oct. 28, 2009, confrontation and shootout in Dearborn, Mich.

A review by his office found the agents had violated no Michigan law, Cox said in a statement released by his office. Cox's ruling follows one by the Wayne County, Mich., prosecutor not to file charges against the agents.

Abdullah, an imam of Masjid Al-Haqq in Detroit, had made statements threatening the lives of federal officers, according to documents filed in U.S. district court in Michigan. Abdullah also called the FBI an "enemy of Islam."

When agents arrived to arrest Abdullah and four others, Cox's statement said, they knew Abdullah was armed. "The evidence reviewed by the Attorney General's office shows that Abdullah was armed, resisted arrest, rejected repeated commands to surrender and show his hands, and still refused to comply when warned that a dog would be deployed," Cox's statement said."Instead, after the dog was deployed, Abdullah revealed a handgun and fired in the direction of law enforcement agents. Four FBI agents were directly involved in the shooting. Each reported fearing for their lives and the lives of others and, in accordance with Michigan law, returned fire in self-defense, resulting in Abdullah's death. All four of Abdullah's associates involved in the incident complied with commands by law enforcement agents and were arrested without incident."

Since the shooting, the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has criticized the FBI, saying that some photos taken after the incident "raised questions." CAIR, however, failed to show that Abdullah had fired at least three shots.

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