Updates on the Fatal Shooting of University of Iowa Grad Student Taleb Hussein Yousef Salameh in North LIberty

On March 11, Taleb Hussein Yousef Salameh, a 28-year-old University of Iowa graduate student was shot and killed by police officers who were responding to a domestic dispute call at North Liberty's Holiday Mobile Home Court.

Officers reported that Salameh opened fire on them almost as soon as they got there, and three officers received injuries that were not life threatening.

The officers involved in the shooting have been placed on paid leave pending the results of an investigation of the incident by the Iowa Department of Public Safety. This is standard procedure for officer involved shootings.

More Details Revealed About Dispute Leading Up to Shooting

Vanessa Miller of the Gazette reports that details from the police log revealed more about the domestic dispute that led up to the shooting, with Salameh reportedly jumping up and down on the car of an unidentified woman as they argued over their daughter.

Police: Fight over daughter preceded fatal North Liberty shooting

Information reported on the Iowa City Police Department’s daily activity log indicates that Iowa City officers were called at 6:01 p.m. Sunday to 238 Holiday Lodge Road after a neighbor reported a disturbance there.

The neighbor, according to the log, said a man was jumping on the hood of a woman’s car, and the woman had driven away in a red Chevy Cavalier – headed out of the Holiday Mobile Home Court in North Liberty.

The neighbor told police that the man went back inside the mobile unit, adding that she had heard him yelling earlier at the woman about where their daughter was, according to the log.

Questions Arise about the Gun Permit

Reports early last week surfaced showing that the University of Iowa had expressed concerns to the Johnson County Sheriff's Office about Salameh's request for a gun permit in early 2010. 

However, an Iowa City psychologist treating Salameh later wrote the sheriff in support of his application, according to the Iowa City Press-Citizen.

An Iowa City psychologist wrote a letter in 2010 to Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek supporting Taleb Salameh’s efforts to obtain a gun. Salameh, 28, was killed Sunday in North Liberty in an apparent shootout with police.

“Mr. Salameh is not showing any indications of impulse-control or substance-abuse problems,” Gregory Gullickson wrote June 22, 2010. “He has reported feeling in a significantly improved mood for several months now, and I can see no reason that he not be allowed to obtain a permit to own firearms.”

Pulkrabek told Jason Clayworth of the Des Moines Register that the incident was an example of the limitated options sheriffs currently have to deny gun permits under Iowa's shall carry law.

That’s because Iowa lawmakers eliminated virtually all discretion previously granted to sheriffs in issuing carry permits.

Online court records show Salameh was arrested several times for various offenses, including disorderly conduct, public intoxication and  driving drunk.

Pulkrabek defends his earlier decisions to approve Salameh for permits to acquire guns because Pulkrabek said he believes the right to have a gun to protect one’s home is constitutionally protected. However, he believes the right to carry a weapon in public should come with much stronger safeguards.

Meanwhile, University of Iowa President Sally Mason completed a week of duelling document releases given up quite willingly by both the Sheriff's Office and University to media by defending the University of Iowa's role in the issuance of gun permits, and the sharing of student information with the sheriff, which has come under fire recenty.

In response to the Sunday evening death of University of Iowa mechanical engineering graduate student Taleb Salameh, UI President Sally Mason defended the university’s right in having a say in the issuing of gun permits to students.

“I think there is potentially a place for us to be able to share information that we might have that would be helpful to the sheriff,” Mason told The Daily Iowan on Thursday. “Again, we are going to wait and see what the Department of Education says with regard to what that information should be, if any. We are very much in favor of being able to cooperate with local law enforcement anytime we can be helpful and useful.”

Salameh Remembered

Quentin Misiag of the Daily Iowan reported that family members of Salameh painted a different picture of the one given by the firefight with police.

According to his obituary, family members said Salameh was a passionate and active young man.

“Taleb was a man who loved life, believed with strong conviction on much in this world, and acted with passion in his beliefs,” the obituary said. “… He was extremely gifted with knowledge and was like a sponge soaking up more and more. It would be hard to find someone that was more animated as an activist about civil and human rights. He could figure out, fix it, and move on to the next challenge with anything mechanical. But most of all, he was a man that loved his family, believed in his family, and was there for anyone of them anytime.”

The Gazette also reported on some of the outpouring of grief from family members following Salameh's death.

Salameh's sister mourns 'theft of his life'

Aisha Salameh, who says she’s Salameh’s sister, wrote on her Facebook page on Wednesday about the heartbreak of losing her “best friend.”

“The shock of his passing has been the hardest thing my family and I have ever suffered,” she said.

Aisha Salameh wrote that anyone who knew her, also knew her brother.

“He has always been by my side, my friend, my protector, my constant,” she wrote. “He is a great loving man, brother, friend and father … He would do anything for what he believed and for the people he loved.”

She thanked friends for helping the family celebrate Salameh’s life and for sharing stories about “his amazing character and integrity.