Atlanta area officer dies after shootout; 1960s militant sought

Metro manhunt for ex-Black Panther H. Rap Brown

March 17, 2000 Web posted at: 4:48 p.m. EST (2148 GMT)
From staff and wire reports

ATLANTA (CNN) -- A Fulton County sheriff's deputy died Friday afternoon
of injuries suffered in an Atlanta area shoot-out Thursday night as he
and another deputy attempted to serve a warrant on the former H. Rap
Brown, Fulton County Sheriff Jacquelyn Barrett said.

The deputy, Ricky Kinchen, 35, died at 3:25 p.m. EST of complications
from the gunshot wounds. "His heart stopped," Barrett said.

Kinchen had been hit in the abdomen and hand, said Dr. Jeffrey Solomone
of Grady Memorial Hospital. He said Kinchen "almost bled to death"
Thursday night and had received more than 50 units of blood and blood
products. The deputy was married and had two teenaged children.

Earlier Friday, the other wounded deputy identified the attacker as the
1960s black militant once known as H. Rap Brown. A manhunt was
continuing for Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, as Brown is now known.

The shooting, which one official likened to an ambush, occurred Thursday
night as the two Fulton County sheriff's deputies tried to serve a
warrant accusing Al-Amin of theft and impersonating an officer.

Part of the city of Atlanta is within Fulton County.

Atlanta Police Chief Beverly Harvard said investigators were able to
question the less seriously wounded deputy, Aldranon English, and showed
him a photo lineup that included a picture of Al-Amin.

English "has positively identified (Al-Amin) as the person who fired
upon the two deputies," she said at a news conference.

'Almost bled to death'

English was in serious condition at Grady Hospital in Atlanta.

Both men were wearing protective vests, said Fulton County Sheriff
Jacquelyn Barrett.

She said one of the guns used to fire at the deputies was a high-powered
assault rifle. One of the surgeons who treated the deputies said they
suffered "Vietnam-style wounds," Barrett said.

Investigators believe the shooter fired more than one weapon.

Harvard said 20 shell casings from a .223-caliber assault rifle were
found along with four 9 mm shell casings.

Shell casings from the deputies' .40-caliber handguns indicated the
officers fired 11 times, police said.

Ambush?

The deputies did not know that Al-Amin was Brown, the former Black
Panthers militant, when they tried to serve the warrant at a grocery
store he owned in Atlanta's West End neighborhood, Barrett said.

Police Chief Harvard said English and Kinchen found no one at the store,
drove around the block and then stopped back near the store when they
saw a man in a black Mercedes parked there.

They asked the man to get out, but "one of the deputies was concerned he
could not see the person's hands," she said. "The deputy then asked him
to show his hands, and the person responded by saying, 'OK, here they
are.' At that point in time, the two sheriff's deputies were fired
upon."

Harvard said police believe the gunman was wounded in the shoot-out that
followed. Police tracked a trail of blood to a vacant house but did not
find the gunman, she said.

Barrett said she believes the officers were ambushed. "I think both
officers kind of walked into this," she said.

The address of the store was listed on the warrant, which was issued in
neighboring Cobb County after Al-Amin failed to appear in court in
January.

Court documents in Cobb County showed Al-Amin was wanted for driving a
stolen car, driving without insurance and flashing a badge in an attempt
to convince the officer who stopped him that he also was a policeman.

'Violence is as American as cherry pie'

Al-Amin was a leader of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee
and justice minister of the Black Panthers, which rose to prominence in
the 1960s. Known then as Brown, he once exhorted blacks to arm
themselves, saying "violence 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 shot in the neck, face and hand. No one was killed.

The next morning, a fire burned a school and two city blocks.

Converted to Islam

Al-Amin came to Atlanta in 1976 after converting to Islam while
imprisoned for his role in a robbery that ended in a shoot-out with New
York police.

In recent years, Al-Amin has lived as the Muslim spiritual leader of a
community mosque and operated a small grocery in Atlanta's West End. He
has worked at trying to clean up drugs and prostitution in the
neighborhood.

In 1995, he was accused of aggravated assault, carrying a concealed
weapon and possessing an unlicensed pistol after a man claimed he was
shot by Al-Amin.

William Miles, then 22, told police he was walking home from a park when
one of four shots struck him in the leg. Federal authorities said
Al-Amin was carrying an unlicensed pistol and a large knife when he was
arrested.

Al-Amin's supporters claimed the charges were trumped up as revenge
because of the New York police shoot-out, for which he served five years
of a 15-year sentence.

"Some authorities apparently feel it should have been more, and they've
continued their persecution of me by targeting me," Al-Amin once told
CNN affiliate WXIA-TV in Atlanta.

Miles later recanted and said he was pressured by authorities to
identify Al-Amin as the man who shot him.
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