Everything We Know So Far About ​the Man Who Was Shot by Cops After Allegedly Plotting to Behead a Conservative Pundit

When Usaamah Abdullah Rahim was killed on Tuesday, the 26-year-old's brother, Ibrahim, took to Twitter, claiming his beloved sibling had been waiting for the bus when he was unceremoniously shot in the back three times. Ibrahim, the imam who reluctantly oversaw deceased Boston Bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev's funeral, added that Usaamah's last words were "I can't breathe." Initial coverage of the young man's death seemed to paint it as yet another case of the police killing someone under suspicious circumstances.

Those early accounts, however, now appear to be inaccurate, and experts are praising law enforcement officials for releasing information and video more quickly than usual to help keep misinformation from seeping into—or at least lingering in—the news cycle. Rather than yet another case of police brutality, Tuesday's shooting appears to be the end result of a long investigation by the FBI of a man reportedly planning to attack a legendarily Islamophobic TV pundit.

That pundit is Pamela Geller, the founder of the blog Atlas Shrugs and the vaguely-named Freedom Defense Initiative. Geller is most famous for her grandstanding opposition to the "Ground Zero Mosque" in lower Manhattan and for organizing a "draw Muhammad" contest in Texas that was attacked by a pair of fundamentalist Muslims who were shot down by an off-duty police officer. (The Islamic State would later dubiously claim credit for that attack.)

Rahim, whom the FBI had been monitoring for some time due to his alleged radicalization, apparently didn't like Geller much—on Wednesday, law enforcement sources told CNN that Rahim was planning to kill the conservative activist.

Rahim, a security guard who moved from Miami to Boston in 2013, apparently explained his plan when met with his nephew David Wright—a.k.a. Dawud Sharif Abdul Khaliq—on a rainy beach in Rhode Island last Sunday. According to CNN, he told Wright he wanted to travel to New York and behead Geller with a 15-inch Marine Raider Bowie knife he'd purchased on Amazon.

Then, three days later, at 5 AM, Rahim changed his mind.

"And, ah, but I can't wait that long. I can't wait that long man," he explained to Wright on the phone, saying he'd be going after some "boys in blue" instead.

On Tuesday, Rahim reportedly called his father and said, "You're not going to see me again after today." Later that day, a group of officers approached him outside of a CVS pharmacy (he was under 24-hour surveillance because of his cop-killing plan). Rahim reportedly brandished his knife and started running toward the officers, who say they were forced to shoot when he got close. After an initial wave of condemnations, the department aired surveillance video of the incident for local leaders, who have since corroborated the official version of events.

It wasn't until Wednesday that we learned Rahim's original plan was to go after Geller. "Of course I'm not surprised that they would target me," she told CNN. "This is a war." ("We don't know whether they even knew where to find her," one source told NBC News, with another calling it a "fantasy.")

Wright has been charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice for allegedly trying to destroy Rahim's cell phone. A third man they met with in Rhode Island, who hasn't been named, is reportedly still under investigation.

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