Excerpt:
Some civil rights and advocacy groups in Michigan sent a letter today to the Department of Justice asking for an investigation into the shooting death of Luqman Ameen Abdullah, a Muslim leader accused of buying and selling stolen goods. He died Oct. 28 after a shootout with FBI agents.
A spokesman for the Justice Department, Alejandro Miyar, said today in response: "We are aware of the incident. But we do not discuss whether or not we will be launching an investigation as a matter of department policy."
Detroit FBI Special Agent Sandra Berchtold said today that investigations into the incident are ongoing.
Dawud Walid, head of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the letter was signed by him and members of six other groups, including the Michigan chapter of the ACLU, the Dearborn-based Congress of Arab-American Organizations and the National Lawyers Guild. The letter comes days before a scheduled visit to Detroit on Thursday by Attorney General Eric Holder, who plans to speak to law enforcement officials and minority groups.