Elham Asaad Buaras
In Missouri, US, Muslim leaders have called for “full transparency” and the release of bodycam video of the September 7 shooting of a mentally ill Muslim man by St Louis Police, who locals say did little to defuse the situation.
Officers shot and killed 61-year-old Sudanese American immigrant Bada Ali after he allegedly barricaded himself in a flat when police came to serve multiple felony warrants.
Ali allegedly charged an officer with a knife, and the officer shot at him seven times. Residents expressed concern over the police’s escalation of the situation with Ali, who was reportedly suffering from mental illness.
A representative of a local community organisation told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “It just didn’t have to happen like this… He was afraid. All he saw was this SWAT team with big guns, thinking they were about to kill him, and they did.”
All the officers involved in the incident were wearing body cameras.
The area is a housing complex used by immigrants, said Lana Hamid, who also immigrated from Sudan and used to live in the apartments.
Hamid said she knew Ali and his children for about five years, right after they immigrated. Hamid and her daughter, Marwa Mohamed, claimed Ali struggled with mental health. Occasionally, he would be out in the heat wearing multiple jackets.
The children’s mother had passed away, and Hamid said she helped take care of Ali’s children, two twin girls who called her mother.
Members of the Organisation for Black Struggle said community members alerted them to the scene when they saw police to help de-escalate the situation.
“They were already traumatised before coming here. They’ve been in refugee camps, war-torn areas, and then this,” said Jamala Rogers, one of the group’s members. Veii Kauaria, who works with the organisation and speaks Arabic, knew Ali, and got to the scene, said he was disappointed officers refused to let him negotiate with him.
“We urge law enforcement authorities to ensure full transparency during the investigation of this disturbing incident and to release the officers’ body camera video so that the community can assess whether all available measures were taken to prevent such a tragic outcome,” said the Missouri chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Board Chair Yasir Ali.
He noted that CAIR has responded to several past police shootings targeting American Muslims or members of other minority communities.
