Nation in brief: Suspect killed in FBI shootout

Detroit – Federal authorities on Wednesday arrested several members of a radical Sunni Islam group in the U.S., killing one of its leaders at a shootout in a Michigan warehouse, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Agents were trying to arrest Luqman Ameen Abdullah, 53, at a Dearborn warehouse on charges that included conspiracy to sell stolen goods and illegal possession and sale of firearms. Authorities also conducted raids elsewhere to try to round up 10 followers named in a federal complaint.

No one was charged with terrorism. But Abdullah was “advocating and encouraging his followers to commit violent acts against the United States,” FBI agent Gary Leone said in an affidavit filed with the 43-page criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday.

FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold said Abdullah refused to surrender, fired a weapon and was killed by gunfire from agents.

Sect member’s assault trial begins

Eldorado, Texas – The first criminal prosecution stemming from a controversial raid on a polygamous sect’s compound here began Wednesday, as a state prosecutor told jurors he would prove that a key member of the group had sex with a 16-year-old girl.

Raymond Merrill Jessop, now 38, is charged with sexual assault on a minor for allegedly fathering a child with the daughter of the sect’s self-styled prophet, Warren Jeffs. The girl was one of Jessop’s wives, but prosecutors argue that the marriage is not legal in Texas.

Under Texas law, someone can be convicted of sexual assault of a minor even if the relationship was consensual, provided the victim was younger than 17 and not lawfully married to the assailant.

Defense attorney Mark Stevens countered that the state did not have enough evidence to prove a crime occurred.

“In this country, we don’t try people based on their clothes or their hairstyles. And we don’t try people on their beliefs or the churches they worship in,” he said.