1973 New York City hostage incident

The 1973 New York City hostage incident was a 47 hour incident at John and Al's Sporting Goods after a botched robbery and murder of a New York City police officer, lasting from January 19 to January 21, 1973. Eleven people were held hostage by four men. Police responded to an attempted robbery by four Sunni Muslims looking for guns, rifles, pistols and ammunition for "a holy crusade." There was a three-hour shootout. The gunmen were Shulab Abdur Raheem, 24 years old; Dawd A. Rahman, 22; Yusef Abdallah Almussadig, 23, and Salih Ali Abdullah, 26. In 1974, their court case went to the State Supreme Court in Brooklyn. The defense contended that the four men held up the store in January because they feared attacks by their rivals, the Black Muslims, because the day before the robbery, seven Sunni Muslims were killed in a house in Washington. A jury found them guilty of 41 counts, including murder, kidnapping, and robbery. Legacy: The hostage crisis was a turning point in the New York Police Department's approach to hostage situations. Instead of brute force, the police used psychology, firearm discipline and patience to end the siege. These were techniques that were then codified in the department's hostage-negotiating training program. Parole: In 1998, the New York State Parole Board released Abdulah Almussudug. The public was not yet aware he had been released when he died in 2003. The convicted killer, Shuaib A. Raheem, was released on parole from the Eastern Correctional Facility in Napanoch, N.Y., in 2010 after serving 35 years in prison. He was 60 years old at the time of his release.