He became a muslim in jail in the '70's, is now known as Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin. Here's a link to tons of stories from the Atlanta Journal and Constitution (I don't know how long it'll be good). I've cut'n'pasted the main story below.
Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin Article Index
The sheriff's deputies apparently did wound Al-Amin with their .40 sidearms. He was using a .223 AR-style rifle, and apparently emptied a 30-round magazine, based on some early reports.
Pray for the family of the slain deputy, for a speedy recovery for the wounded deputy, and for the safety of those who finally catch up with this scum.
I loved this one. Wendell Muhammad, a Nation of Islam spokesman, commenting on Al-Amin's violent past to a news reporter, said "He did a 180-degree turn on that. He was the epitome of the peace of Islam." It appears he did a 360-degree turn and ended up back where he started. If this is the "peace of Islam", keep your powder dry.
There are tons of firearms inaccuracies / half-truths / exaggerations /lies in the reporting and statements by officials, as we have come to expect.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 3.18.2000]
Officers vow to find former Black Panther
By Lyda Longa
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writers
Hundreds of police officers and FBI agents continued to search Friday evening for a former Black Panther turned neighborhood leader who is wanted in the killing of one Fulton County sheriff's deputy and the wounding of another.
Police said they believe Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, is being harbored by someone who admires him for his efforts to rid the southwest Atlanta enclave known as the West End of drugs and prostitution.
"We will leave no stone unturned until we find this man," said Capt. David Chadd, chief spokesman for the Fulton County Sheriff's Department.
Mayor Bill Campbell urged anyone with information that would help police find Al-Amin to come forward. He warned that harboring a fugitive charged with murder is illegal.
Chadd said a 100-officer team searching West End for Al-Amin early Friday morning was scaled back only after police determined he was no longer within a four-block area near the Atlanta University Center.
Atlanta homicide investigators and uniformed officers from the precinct that covers that section of the city remained in the neighborhood, however. That force was quadrupled after Deputy Richard Kinchen, 35, died of multiple gunshot wounds Friday afternoon at Grady Memorial Hospital.
An all-points bulletin was issued before dawn advising that Al-Amin could be driving a black, four-door Mercedes-Benz with tinted windows and license plate 246MBG or a green Toyota Four-Runner with Alabama plates 45AV431.
The FBI issued a federal fugitive warrant for Al-Amin's arrest, said spokeswoman Celeste Armstead.
It was the second time in 41 years that a Fulton County sheriff's deputy was killed by gunfire in the line of duty. Aldranon English, 28, the deputy who survived the attack, identified Al-Amin as the shooter after Atlanta homicide investigators showed him several pictures from a lineup as the officer lay in his hospital bed Friday morning.
A few hours later, English learned that his friend and partner had died.
"We are heartbroken," said a solemn Sheriff Jackie Barrett. "The entire department is taking this very hard."
Investigators said Al-Amin used a .223-caliber assault rifle to attack Kinchen and English. The weapon is similar to M-16 and AR-15 rifles. The bullets are about 3 inches long and about a half-inch in diameter.
"The only purpose to use a weapon like the one he used is to kill," Chadd said, referring to the weapon used in the attack.
Kinchen, a nine-year veteran of the Fulton Sheriff's Department, leaves behind a wife and two children.
"The deputy's demise was due to the horrendous trauma he suffered from the attack with the assault weapon," Chadd said. "His heart stopped several times, and he could not be revived.
"It is a shame he had to die in such a heinous fashion, especially since the deputies were only trying to serve him with a warrant that was so minor."
Kinchen and English were attempting to serve a warrant on Al-Amin late Thursday night for Cobb County police.
The Cobb warrant, issued Jan. 28 after Al-Amin failed to appear in court, was for driving without proof of insurance and impersonating a police officer. Thursday night, Atlanta police and Fulton County sheriff's officials mistakenly said the warrant was for aggravated assault.
Cobb police had arrested Al-Amin on May 31, 1999, during a traffic stop on Cobb Parkway near I-285. He was driving a stolen 1992 green Ford Explorer. He told Officer J.J. Mack he had bought the Explorer earlier in the month, according to the police incident report.
When Al-Amin pulled out his wallet, he had what appeared to be a police badge, the report said. When Mack asked if he was a cop, Al-Amin said yes, he was an officer in White Hall, Ala., the report said.
Al-Amin's run-in with the Cobb police would lead to tragic circumstances nine months later.
Atlanta Police Chief Beverly Harvard said the Fulton deputies arrived at the rear of a grocery store Al-Amin has operated at the 1100 block of Oak Street just after 10 p.m. Thursday.
When the deputies did not see Al-Amin inside, they went to the front of the building. There they spotted a man beside a black Mercedes-Benz, Harvard said. When the deputies approached him, the man started shooting.
The deputies shot back.
Barrett said the shooter continued to fire at English as he writhed on the ground.
"The only word I can use for this attack is 'ambush,' " Barrett said Friday morning at a press conference. "There is just no other word I can use."
Though Kinchen and English wore protective vests, the gear was no match for the powerful bullets that struck the deputies, said Dr. Jeff Salomone, surgeon for the Atlanta Police Department. Salomone, associate professor of surgery at Emory School of Medicine, said the slugs went under and around the vests.
"A vest offers no protection against a high-velocity bullet," he said.
Barrett said another surgeon at Grady told her that the wounds sustained by the deputies "looked like those seen in Vietnam."
The gunman was also injured. Harvard said investigators searching for him followed a trail of blood that led to an abandoned house near the scene. No one was inside. The Mercedes that was parked in front of the store was gone.
Al-Amin, 56, moved to West End in 1976 after he was released from prison on a robbery conviction.
He converted to the Muslim faith while in prison and changed his name to Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin.
His grocery store is about 100 feet from a blue frame building that serves as a mosque.
While Al-Amin has been well regarded in his community, Atlanta police Detective Joseph Masterson Jr. said he was one of several suspects in 20 unsolved West End homicides. But Al-Amin was never charged. Deputy Chief C.B. Jackson and other police commanders concluded they did not have enough evidence against him or other suspects.
The Muslim community, which has worked to revitalize West End, showed support for Al-Amin after learning he is suspected of killing the deputy.
Nadim Ali, a spokesman for the Community Mosque of Atlanta, urged caution and fairness.
"We the members of the Community Mosque of Atlanta would like to state that the legal principle that a person is innocent until proven guilty is also a concept that is consistent with the Islamic belief. We ask you to avoid passing judgment until all the facts are in and not use the media to accuse, try and convict Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin.
"He is a respected leader in the Islamic community and his works are well documented, not only in Atlanta, but throughout the Islamic world."
Ali refused to answer questions from reporters.
Attorney Bruce Harvey, who once represented Al-Amin, was surprised to hear the allegations. In 1995, Harvey represented Al-Amin when he was charged with weapons violations and aggravated assault. He was accused of shooting a man in the leg in West End Park. The charges were dismissed.
"He'd put down the shotgun and picked up the Koran," Harvey said. "He's turned away from being a revolutionary and a radical leader to being a spiritual leader.
"Why he would respond to these kinds of charges out of Cobb County in that fashion would be unfathomable to me."
Staff writers Joshua B. Good, Ernie Suggs and Bill Rankin contributed to this article. [/quote]
Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin Article Index
The sheriff's deputies apparently did wound Al-Amin with their .40 sidearms. He was using a .223 AR-style rifle, and apparently emptied a 30-round magazine, based on some early reports.
Pray for the family of the slain deputy, for a speedy recovery for the wounded deputy, and for the safety of those who finally catch up with this scum.
I loved this one. Wendell Muhammad, a Nation of Islam spokesman, commenting on Al-Amin's violent past to a news reporter, said "He did a 180-degree turn on that. He was the epitome of the peace of Islam." It appears he did a 360-degree turn and ended up back where he started. If this is the "peace of Islam", keep your powder dry.
There are tons of firearms inaccuracies / half-truths / exaggerations /lies in the reporting and statements by officials, as we have come to expect.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 3.18.2000]
Officers vow to find former Black Panther
By Lyda Longa
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writers
Hundreds of police officers and FBI agents continued to search Friday evening for a former Black Panther turned neighborhood leader who is wanted in the killing of one Fulton County sheriff's deputy and the wounding of another.
Police said they believe Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, is being harbored by someone who admires him for his efforts to rid the southwest Atlanta enclave known as the West End of drugs and prostitution.
"We will leave no stone unturned until we find this man," said Capt. David Chadd, chief spokesman for the Fulton County Sheriff's Department.
Mayor Bill Campbell urged anyone with information that would help police find Al-Amin to come forward. He warned that harboring a fugitive charged with murder is illegal.
Chadd said a 100-officer team searching West End for Al-Amin early Friday morning was scaled back only after police determined he was no longer within a four-block area near the Atlanta University Center.
Atlanta homicide investigators and uniformed officers from the precinct that covers that section of the city remained in the neighborhood, however. That force was quadrupled after Deputy Richard Kinchen, 35, died of multiple gunshot wounds Friday afternoon at Grady Memorial Hospital.
An all-points bulletin was issued before dawn advising that Al-Amin could be driving a black, four-door Mercedes-Benz with tinted windows and license plate 246MBG or a green Toyota Four-Runner with Alabama plates 45AV431.
The FBI issued a federal fugitive warrant for Al-Amin's arrest, said spokeswoman Celeste Armstead.
It was the second time in 41 years that a Fulton County sheriff's deputy was killed by gunfire in the line of duty. Aldranon English, 28, the deputy who survived the attack, identified Al-Amin as the shooter after Atlanta homicide investigators showed him several pictures from a lineup as the officer lay in his hospital bed Friday morning.
A few hours later, English learned that his friend and partner had died.
"We are heartbroken," said a solemn Sheriff Jackie Barrett. "The entire department is taking this very hard."
Investigators said Al-Amin used a .223-caliber assault rifle to attack Kinchen and English. The weapon is similar to M-16 and AR-15 rifles. The bullets are about 3 inches long and about a half-inch in diameter.
"The only purpose to use a weapon like the one he used is to kill," Chadd said, referring to the weapon used in the attack.
Kinchen, a nine-year veteran of the Fulton Sheriff's Department, leaves behind a wife and two children.
"The deputy's demise was due to the horrendous trauma he suffered from the attack with the assault weapon," Chadd said. "His heart stopped several times, and he could not be revived.
"It is a shame he had to die in such a heinous fashion, especially since the deputies were only trying to serve him with a warrant that was so minor."
Kinchen and English were attempting to serve a warrant on Al-Amin late Thursday night for Cobb County police.
The Cobb warrant, issued Jan. 28 after Al-Amin failed to appear in court, was for driving without proof of insurance and impersonating a police officer. Thursday night, Atlanta police and Fulton County sheriff's officials mistakenly said the warrant was for aggravated assault.
Cobb police had arrested Al-Amin on May 31, 1999, during a traffic stop on Cobb Parkway near I-285. He was driving a stolen 1992 green Ford Explorer. He told Officer J.J. Mack he had bought the Explorer earlier in the month, according to the police incident report.
When Al-Amin pulled out his wallet, he had what appeared to be a police badge, the report said. When Mack asked if he was a cop, Al-Amin said yes, he was an officer in White Hall, Ala., the report said.
Al-Amin's run-in with the Cobb police would lead to tragic circumstances nine months later.
Atlanta Police Chief Beverly Harvard said the Fulton deputies arrived at the rear of a grocery store Al-Amin has operated at the 1100 block of Oak Street just after 10 p.m. Thursday.
When the deputies did not see Al-Amin inside, they went to the front of the building. There they spotted a man beside a black Mercedes-Benz, Harvard said. When the deputies approached him, the man started shooting.
The deputies shot back.
Barrett said the shooter continued to fire at English as he writhed on the ground.
"The only word I can use for this attack is 'ambush,' " Barrett said Friday morning at a press conference. "There is just no other word I can use."
Though Kinchen and English wore protective vests, the gear was no match for the powerful bullets that struck the deputies, said Dr. Jeff Salomone, surgeon for the Atlanta Police Department. Salomone, associate professor of surgery at Emory School of Medicine, said the slugs went under and around the vests.
"A vest offers no protection against a high-velocity bullet," he said.
Barrett said another surgeon at Grady told her that the wounds sustained by the deputies "looked like those seen in Vietnam."
The gunman was also injured. Harvard said investigators searching for him followed a trail of blood that led to an abandoned house near the scene. No one was inside. The Mercedes that was parked in front of the store was gone.
Al-Amin, 56, moved to West End in 1976 after he was released from prison on a robbery conviction.
He converted to the Muslim faith while in prison and changed his name to Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin.
His grocery store is about 100 feet from a blue frame building that serves as a mosque.
While Al-Amin has been well regarded in his community, Atlanta police Detective Joseph Masterson Jr. said he was one of several suspects in 20 unsolved West End homicides. But Al-Amin was never charged. Deputy Chief C.B. Jackson and other police commanders concluded they did not have enough evidence against him or other suspects.
The Muslim community, which has worked to revitalize West End, showed support for Al-Amin after learning he is suspected of killing the deputy.
Nadim Ali, a spokesman for the Community Mosque of Atlanta, urged caution and fairness.
"We the members of the Community Mosque of Atlanta would like to state that the legal principle that a person is innocent until proven guilty is also a concept that is consistent with the Islamic belief. We ask you to avoid passing judgment until all the facts are in and not use the media to accuse, try and convict Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin.
"He is a respected leader in the Islamic community and his works are well documented, not only in Atlanta, but throughout the Islamic world."
Ali refused to answer questions from reporters.
Attorney Bruce Harvey, who once represented Al-Amin, was surprised to hear the allegations. In 1995, Harvey represented Al-Amin when he was charged with weapons violations and aggravated assault. He was accused of shooting a man in the leg in West End Park. The charges were dismissed.
"He'd put down the shotgun and picked up the Koran," Harvey said. "He's turned away from being a revolutionary and a radical leader to being a spiritual leader.
"Why he would respond to these kinds of charges out of Cobb County in that fashion would be unfathomable to me."
Staff writers Joshua B. Good, Ernie Suggs and Bill Rankin contributed to this article. [/quote]
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