Knife-Wielding Suspected ISIS Terrorist Charges Arizona Cop – Wrong Move

“Owing my allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.”

Newly released body-cam footage shows a police officer shooting down a self-described ISIS supporter who had allegedly been planning a “lone wolf” terror attack.

On Jan. 7 Ismail Hamed called 911 asking for police officers to be dispatched so that he could “deal with them,” according to a police report. Hamed said he wishes to engage the officers in debate about the suffering of the Palestinian people and other Middle East current events. He identified himself as “owing my allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.”

The officer to arrive on the scene was Maricopa County Sheriff’s Sgt. Brandon Wells.

The footage from Wells’ body-cam shows the 18-year-old Hamed, hands in pockets, at first talking to the cop, who responded calmly. Then all of a sudden Hamed is seen tossing an object — a rock, according to police report — at Wells. As Wells calls for reinforcement, Hamed pulls out a knife, brandishing it.

Wells, his gun now aimed at Hamed, is seen telling the young ISIS-devotee to drop his weapon or he will shoot. Hamed doesn’t lower the knife, until Wells guns him down.

Hamed was treated for his wounds and charged with terrorism a week later, accused of “intentionally or knowingly, [providing] advice, assistance, direction or management” to the Islamic State, according to police report seen by The Arizona Republic.

“Evidence indicates and his statements, that his intent that day was to further the actions of his ideology,” Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone told reporters at the time. “And it is our belief that his intent was to harm that deputy in effort to promote terror.”

FBI Special Agent Michael DeLeon, who was called on to investigate the incident, described it as a “lone-wolf attack” carried out by a “homegrown violent extremist,” adding that Hamed has been on the agency’s radar for a while.

The release of the footage was the result of the presiding Judge Sally Duncan’s decision to make case material available to the public, following the demand of local press.

The United States still fights the remnants of the so-called Islamic State in Syria and its surrounding area, both directly and through proxy militia forces.

The persistence of the multi-national terrorist group has led a number of military officials to criticize President Donald Trump’s plan to pull out American forces from the war-torn region. But Trump, who has always espoused an isolationist approach to global affairs, insisted that ISIS has been largely “defeated” and that it’s time for American troops to return home.

That is not to say that the administration, which recently rolled out a new counterterrorism policy, is showing leniency toward homegrown, would-be ISIS fighters, like Hamed (something for which at least one Democratic freshman had previously advocated).

https://twitter.com/ChicagosFines19/status/1096455593345384449?s=19

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