COLUMBUS, Ohio, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- The man killed by police at the Columbus, Ohio, airport was treated for mental illness for years after being acquitted of attempted murder, court records show.
Hashim Hanif Ibn Abdul-Rasheed, 41, was charged in Cleveland in 1999 with a list of crimes that also included robbery, burglary, grand theft auto and weapons offenses. He spent more than a decade under court supervision after a judge found him not guilty by reason of insanity in December 2000, spending time in psychiatric hospitals and group homes and eventually being allowed to live on his own. .
Abdul-Rasheed first came to the attention of security at Port Columbus International Airport when he tried to use a woman's ID to buy a plane ticket Wednesday afternoon. He then got into a confrontation with police officers near his SUV, which was about to be towed after being left parked illegally outside the terminal.
Abdul-Rasheed lunged at a police officer with a knife, investigators said.
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Jim Shriner, owner of Broad & James Towing, witnessed the shooting. He said Abdul-Rasheed and the officers were already involved in a confrontation when he arrived, with the officers giving Abdul-Rsheed commands to stop and drop his weapon and the man responding with words Shriner could not make out.
"I don't know how he thought it was going to end," Shriner told the Columbus Dispatch. "I feel horrible that somebody lost their life. At the same time, the officer tells you to stop, it's time to stop."
There is no evidence Abdul-Rasheed contemplated a terrorist attack, police said.
