Given the facts, Fenyanga Muhammed should be dead ? and he knows it. Shot four times at point-blank range during what police describe as a drug bust turned violent, the 36-year-old East Baltimore resident might have become another forgotten casualty of the streets. Instead Muhammed survived ? and he thinks it happened for a reason.
“When I was lying on the ground in the alley, I remember thinking if I die here right now, it will just be another black man dead,” he said. “Police will say I was a drug dealer, which I?m not, and no one will care, but it?s not true.”
Muhammed?s story begins on Feb. 28 as he cut through an East Baltimore alley on his way to pick up his cousin?s car.
“Someone came up behind and me and started yelling ?Police. Spit out the drugs ? spit out the drugs,? ” he said.
Muhammed said the officer put him in a chokehold, causing the popsicle stick he chewed to become lodged in his throat.
“I tried to tell him I didn?t have any drugs ? but I was choking, so I tried to pull the officer off me,” he said.
As Muhammed tried to free himself from the officer?s grasp, police say he tried to grab the officer?s gun ? prompting the officer?s partner to shoot Muhammed three times in the back and once through the hand.
“The case is still under investigation by our homicide unit,” Baltimore Police Department spokesman Matt Jablow said. “However, our preliminary investigation ? based largely on the statements given by several independent, civilian witnesses at the scene ? indicated that the suspect was shot after he fought with officers.”
But Muhammed considers it a near-deadly miscommunication. “I was panicked because I couldn?t breathe; I wanted the officer to let go of my neck,” he said.
Muhammed said there were no drugs found ? on him or in him.
“They did so many tests on me in the hospital that my stomach was big like I was eight months pregnant,” he said.
University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center officials declined to comment on Muhammed?s claims.
His cousin, Ira Sammuels, who witnessed the shooting, said police beat his cousin before they shot him.
“Fenyanga rolled over onto the officer ? and then his partner started hitting my cousin on the head with a walkie talkie,” Sammuels said.
“The officer screamed, ?let go of his gun,? and I knew I was dead,” Muhammed said.
In the hospital, Muhammed said, he couldn?t see his family ? or his lawyer ? for 10 days.
“They basically told me to get lost,” Granville Templeton, Muhammed?s attorney, said of the police when he tried to visit his client.
But despite not finding any drugs in his body or at the scene, police have charged Muhammed with possession.
“He was charged with drug possession because, based on their observations, the officers believed the suspect was in possession of narcotics,” Jablow said.
Police have also charged Mohammed with misdemeanor assault. Muhammed, according to the court records, has no convictions for drug possession or sales; he had one conviction for battery in 1991.
At least one witness who said he was questioned by detectives backs up Muhammed?s story.
“He did not grab the officer?s gun,” said Lawrence Granger, 49. “The officer was choking him, then they hit in the head with a walkie talkie when he rolled on top of the officer; that?s when he was shot.”
Muhammed said he will continue to speak out about the incident. “All they?ve done is awaken a sleeping giant,” he said.
