Man who shot at Pittsburgh officers said he wanted them to kill him, gets 15 to 30 years

Issa Abdus-Salaam had a difficult childhood, including being moved from his home in Philadelphia at age 7 to live with strangers in Senegal, West Africa.

Although his parents eventually joined him four years later, it wasn’t before he had lived in filth, saw a man beaten to death in the streets for public intoxication and been abused himself, according to court documents.

He and his family returned to the United States when he was 17. Abdus-Salaam struggled to find a suitable career, and at age 23, enlisted in the U.S. Army.

He was deployed in Afghanistan as an infantryman, saw combat, and came home a changed man.

He had difficulty readjusting to civilian life, and his personality changed. He had nightmares, migraines and flashbacks and began abusing alcohol.

He was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and major depressive disorder.

So, Abdus-Salaam said Friday morning at his sentencing hearing, when he was involved in a shootout with Pittsburgh police the evening of Nov. 6, 2019, following a domestic dispute, it wasn’t with intent to harm them.

He wanted them to kill him.

“I did not recognize my suicidal symptoms and had no intention of hurting anyone but myself,” Abdus-Salaam, 33, of Crafton Heights, told the court. “I was at the lowest point of my life and wanted the pain to stop.”

Despite moving argument from defense attorney Luke Wilson and testimony from the defendant’s family, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Bruce Beemer said he could not give Abdus-Salaam anything other than a serious state prison term.

“You were obviously in the throes of something deep and disturbed,” the judge said. “I think it was pretty obvious you were trying to have your life ended. But in doing that, you engaged in behavior that was so dangerous and so incredibly irresponsible that the law requires there to be some measure of punishment. To not give you a significant period of incarceration for this would be to minimize the risk the officers had to endure. They were almost killed. The children were almost killed. This young lady was almost killed. And you were almost killed.

“This is a very, very difficult case.”

Beemer ordered Abdus-Salaam, who pleaded guilty in October to two counts of attempted murder, aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of children, to serve 15 to 30 years in state prison.

According to Assistant District Attorney Chase Stelzer, Abdus-Salaam had an argument with his girlfriend that night. During the dispute, he ripped the woman’s headphones off, pushed her against a television and slapped her face. He then retrieved his Glock .40-caliber handgun.

The woman’s 16-year-old daughter called 911. A 5-year-old boy was also present.

During the 911 call, Abdus-Salaam said, “‘I’m not going to [expletive] jail. I’m leaving in a body bag.’” He put two loaded magazines on the bed.

Police said Abdus-Salaam then dragged his girlfriend down the steps, put the gun near her face and fired twice into the hallway wall.

When Zone 6 officers Nicholas Lowery and Antonio Ruiz responded, they took cover behind a police car 50 feet away. Abdus-Salaam stood in the doorway of the home, with the victims behind him.

The officers ordered Abdus-Salaam to drop his weapon, Stelzer wrote in a sentencing memorandum, and instead the defendant raised his gun and fired six times, striking the police car.

Officers returned fire, hitting him multiple times. They then rendered first aid until an ambulance arrived.

During sentencing on Friday, Zoe Martin, who worked as a social worker with the public defender’s office, said she met with Abdus-Salaam more than 20 times since his arrest, including when he was still at Allegheny General Hospital recovering from his wounds.

“The man laying in that hospital bed is a far different one than standing before you today,” she told the court.

Since his arrest, Martin said Abdus-Salaam has demonstrated a commitment to both mental health and substance abuse treatment.

“Issa now knows there is hope for his future,” she said.

Abdus-Salaam is one of 13 children born to a devout Muslim family in Philadelphia.

When he was 7 years old, according to a mitigation report filed on his behalf, his father decided he no longer wanted his children exposed to American culture. He made arrangements to send Abdus-Salaam to live with another family in Senegal, West Africa, where two of his brothers had already been sent.

Although his parents were to move there as well, they didn’t arrive for almost four years, the report said.

It was there, Martin said, that Abdus-Salaam first attempted suicide at age 8.

His mother, who was a school teacher, told the court her son experienced trauma while they were separated. He didn’t have any formal schooling until age 12. Despite that, the report said, he was able to graduate from high school in Senegal at age 17.

Abdus-Salaam’s father died at age 13, and the report said, the family was penniless. Finally, his mother, Nzinga Abdus-Salaam, was able to get a job with Suffolk University, and the family relocated to Dakar.

They returned to Pittsburgh, where she had family, after Abdus-Salaam graduated from high school. Local universities would not accept his diploma from Senegal, the report said, and he entered JobCorps to earn his high school diploma. He then attended Bidwell Training Center and received an associate’s degree.

Abdus-Salaam enlisted in 2011.

“He was a soldier shooting and fighting,” Nzinga Abdus-Salaam said. “When he came out, he was changed. All of what happened to him is a result of the PTSD. It is not the result of a person who is a violent personality.”

His brother, Siraj Abdus-Salaam, also served in the Army at the same time.

“I understand the things he’s going through mentally,” he told the court. “Not to excuse his actions, it is a traumatizing situation he went through in the military.

“The mistakes he’s made are not what defines him.”

The defendant’s family described him as kind, compassionate, philosophical and responsible.

“The life that he has led has been one of service — service to his country, service to his family,” Wilson argued.

During the shootout with officers, he said, his client, who had extensive marksmanship and military training, purposely exposed himself to direct fire.

“He did not want to cause harm. He was lost. He was in pain,” he said. “Issa’s was the only blood that was shed that day.”

He called his client “extraordinarily remorseful” and asked the court for mercy.

But Stelzer argued that Abdus-Salaam already benefited from the mitigating circumstances of his life when the DA’s office withdrew two counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, which carries a mandatory penalty of 20 to 40 years in prison.

“Doubling down on this mitigation — first to get a good offer and then to get a good sentence — seems to me to be unjust,” Stelzer said.

Further, he noted that Officer Lowery, who could have been killed that day, served four tours of active combat duty as a U.S. Marine, exposed to the same things Abdus-Salaam was.

“The act, itself, of shooting at the officers is abhorrent,” Stelzer said. He noted, too, that the entire incident began with a domestic assault in front of two children.

Abdus-Salaam apologized to the officers, saying at the time he was engaged in a custody dispute, and his mother was ill.

“There’s no question you were going through a significant mental health crisis brought on by your service,” Beemer told the defendant. “The court has to balance that with the need to protect the public and the seriousness of the offense. Two children who easily could have been killed. The officers could have been killed or seriously injured.

“This could have been a disaster of proportions I can’t even contemplate.”