Omar Ameen, 42, was arrested in Sacramento on Wednesday to the complete surprise of his neighbors. Greg Hutson who lives nearby told KTXL that Ameen seemed like a "friendly guy." "The gentleman that got arrested, he kept to himself," Hutson said. "He's got like a wife and children."
Ameen worked as a truck loader and a laborer in Salt Lake City before working in Sacramento as an auto mechanic in February 2016, when the FBI started investigating him for having links to Daesh* in Iraq.
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Ameen received his green card in November 2014; he had applied to US Customs and Immigration Services from Turkey. The court documents claim that he "lied about his background and the circumstances of his departure from Iraq in order to evade detection, seeking to blend into the flow of legitimate refugees fleeing the conflict zone." His application, however, was approved.
The FBI connects Ameen to the 2014 murder of a police officer in the Iraqi town of Rawa a day after Daesh captured it. The prosecutors say that shortly after the murder Ameen entered the United States as a refugee. Authorities also allege "numerous acts of violence" including two undocumented killings in Iraq and the planting of homemade roadside bombs. Eight witnesses have claimed that Ameed was the "main local figure" in Rawa where he was born and lived before moving to the US. In May 2018 Iraq also issued an extradition request over three prior arrest warrants. Omar Ameen's attorneys were unable to comment on his case, yet the Sacramento Bee reported that federal defenders had received the case only minutes before Ameen appeared before the judge.
* Daesh, also known as Islamic State, ISIS, ISIL is a terrorist group, banned in Russia
