Two cops stop teen from shooting self
A Canadian man was sentenced on Tuesday to 26 years in prison for his role in a 2009 suicide bombing in Iraq in which five U.S. soldiers were killed.
Prosecutors said wiretap evidence linked Faruq Khalil Muhammad Isa to a terror network that used a suicide bomber to detonate a truck filled with explosives outside the U.S. base in Mosul.
The blast left a 60-foot crater in the ground.
Isa (photo) admitted corresponding by email with two of the jihadists while they were in Syria and “facilitators” who were trying to get the attackers into Iraq, according to court papers.
Authorities said he also wired $700 to one of them and provided “words of encouragement and religious guidance” to his co-conspirators.
Isa, 51, a Canadian citizen and Iraqi national, was arrested in 2011 on a U.S. warrant after an investigation by authorities in New
York, Canada and Tunisia.
“There’s no excuse for even trying to kill American soldiers,” said U.S. District Judge Roslynn Mauskopf.
She said Isa’s actions warranted a significant prison term, but one less severe than the life sentence called for under federal sentencing guidelines.
That did not sit well with several family members of the soldiers, who appeared in Brooklyn Federal Court expecting Isa to be handed a life sentence.
“I want you to know that I forgive you for your actions to me,” said Becky Johnson, whose son Gary Lee Woods died in the attack. “I will never forgive you for what your actions have done to my son. I can only pray you will never see your family again just like I will never see my son.”
“Bryce’s death left a hole that nobody could possibly understand,” said Melanie Ward, whose son Bryce Gautier was 22 when he was killed in Iraq. “My son was a wonderful person. He was so kind and so giving. He was a perfect medic.”
Jason Pautsch, Bryan Hall and Edward Forrest were also killed in the attack. Two police officers stopped an Inwood teen from shooting himself, pulling a shotgun away from him as he pointed it at his chin.
The 19-year-old’s distraught mom called police, who found him with the gun in the stairwell of the building where he lives on Nagel Ave. by Academy St. in upper Manhattan. The officers grabbed the gun, which went off during the struggle to wrest it from the boy, but no one was hit, police said.
Cops took the teenager into custody soon after the save Monday evening, and charged him with reckless endangerment and criminal weapon possession, though it’s not clear if he will be prosecuted for those offenses. The teen’s identify was not disclosed.
NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan posted a photo of the weapon on Twitter Tuesday.
“This is the loaded shotgun that heroic cops grabbed away from a distraught individual who had it pressed against his chin. @NYPD34PCT officers knew the danger, didn’t hesitate — and saved a life. Well done!” he wrote.
People in crisis can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. They can also call 311 or 911.
NYC Well, a free and confidential hotline, offers help 24 hours a day over the phone, through its online chat or via text.