H. Rap Brown captured in Alabama, in court today

1960s militant turned Muslim cleric faces charges in death of Georgia lawman

FBI agents take Al-Amin into custody Monday night in Alabama

March 21, 2000
Web posted at: 2:14 p.m. EST (1914 GMT)

In this story: 'A lot of shots exchanged' Alabama 'connections' Officers shot trying to serve warrant Black Panther past RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

MONTGOMERY, Alabama (CNN) -- After an exchange of gunfire that ended with his arrest in central Alabama, the 1960s black militant once known as H. Rap Brown was making an appearance in federal court Tuesday before being returned to Georgia where he allegedly shot two sheriff's deputies, one fatally.

AUDIO FBI agent Bill Imfeld explains why Al-Amin fled to Alabama 146K/14 sec. AIFF or WAV sound CNN's Brian Cabell reports on Al-Amin's arrest 485K/45 sec. AIFF or WAV sound

The 56-year-old man now known as Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin was arrested Monday night in Alabama's Lowndes County, west of Montgomery, the FBI said.

Al-Amin, who is being held in Montgomery, appeared before a federal magistrate there on a charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

Authorities said they located him hiding in a shed on Monday afternoon, four days after an Atlanta shoot-out that left one Fulton County sheriff's deputy dead and another seriously wounded.

A memorial service for Deputy Ricky Kinchen, 35, was being held Tuesday in Atlanta, 160 miles northeast of Montgomery. The wounded officer, Aldranon English , 28, is recovering from multiple gunshot wounds to his thigh, arm and right side.

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Once Al-Amin was spotted, he immediately began firing shots at the team of U.S. marshals who found him in the shed, then ran into nearby woods, according to FBI agent Theodore Jackson.

"There were a lot of shots exchanged," said FBI spokeswoman Celestine Armstead.

Federal and state agents circled him, then released dogs into the area, Jackson said. Within moments, Al-Amin was arrested, uninjured. No officers were injured.

Several other people were being detained for possibly harboring a fugitive, though no charges have been filed, authorities said.

It was not immediately clear what led up to the confrontation at the shed.

Lowndes County Sheriff Willie Vaughner told The Birmingham News that agents first spotted Al-Amin walking down a street in the Lowndes County community of Whitehall. The newspaper said he began firing shots and fled into nearby woods and then the shed.

The New York Times, citing interviews broadcast on local TV, reported that federal agents were fired upon near the shed as they were conducting a door-to-door search.

Atlanta Police Chief Beverly Harvard said authorities decided to search the area because of "information" they had received. She would not elaborate.

FBI agent Bill Imfeld told CNN affiliate WAKA that Al-Amin had Alabama "connections ... from when he was part of the radical Black Panther movement and those ties go back a long way."

Al-Amin is accused of fatally shooting Kinchen and wounding English on Thursday night as the deputies tried to serve an arrest warrant at a grocery store Al-Amin operated.

After Al-Amin's arrest, Fulton County Sheriff Jackie Barrett spoke with English. She said he told her: "Tonight I can sleep."

Harvard said Al-Amin would be brought back to Atlanta to face charges including murder. She said authorities had recovered a weapon during Al-Amin's arrest, but noted that it was not the high-powered assault rifle used to shoot the deputies.

The warrant was issued after Al-Amin failed to appear in court in January on charges of theft by receiving stolen property and impersonating an officer. Those charges stemmed from an incident last May, in which Al-Amin was allegedly stopped in a stolen car and flashed a badge.

On Thursday, as the deputies approached a black Mercedes-Benz, the driver got out and started shooting. English identified the shooter as Al-Amin.

Al-Amin was a leader of the Black Panther Party, which was founded in 1966 by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. The pair met as students in Oakland, California, and were working at a city anti-poverty center.

The organization collapsed in the late 1970s, brought down by deaths, defections and infighting. Newton was shot to death in 1989 by a young drug dealer.

In the 1960s Al-Amin served as a leader of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and justice minister of the Black Panthers. He once exhorted blacks to arm themselves saying: "I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie."

In 1967, he was charged with inciting a riot in Cambridge, Maryland, where he had told about 400 blacks: "It's time for Cambridge to explode, baby. Black folks built America, and if America don't come around, we're going to burn America down."

After the rally, shots were fired between blacks and whites. Al-Amin was wounded in the forehead by a shotgun pellet, and a white police officer was wounded. The next morning, a school and two city blocks burned.

Al-Amin went to Atlanta in 1976 after converting to Islam while serving five years in prison for his role in a robbery that ended in a shoot-out with New York police. In recent years, he operated the small grocery in Atlanta's West End, and has been the spiritual leader of a mosque in the neighborhood.

Neighbors credited Al-Amin, described by friends as a humble and respectful man, for working to clean up drugs and prostitution in the low-income West End.

In 1995, Al-Amin was accused of aggravated assault after a man claimed he was shot by Al-Amin. The man later recanted and said he was pressured by authorities to identify Al-Amin as the shooter.

In addition to Newton and Al-Amin, other former Black Panthers have had run-ins with the law:

  • Eldridge Cleaver went to prison for assault.

  • Joanne Chesimard was convicted in 1977 of killing a state trooper. She is now known as Assata Shakur and is living as a fugitive in Cuba.

  • Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt was recently freed from prison after a court found that he hadn't received a fair trail when he was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the 1968 murder of a schoolteacher.

Correspondent Brian Cabell and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Atlanta area officer dies after shootout; 1960s militant sought
March 17, 2000

Federal Bureau of Investigation
U.S. Marshals Service
Fulton County Sheriff's Reserve
Atlanta Police Department
AFRO-Americ@: THE BLACK PANTHERS
Bobby Seale (Black Panther Party founder)

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