They are both children of immigrants in their early 30s who grew up in Brooklyn and worked to help their communities, whether by activism or volunteering. Neither had a prior criminal record.
But on Friday night, the lives of Urooj Rahman and Colinford King Mattis took an unlikely turn when they were arrested for allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail into an empty police car in Fort Greene. If convicted, they face a minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of 20 years for causing damage to a police vehicle by fire and explosives.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York, the two defendants were seen on security cameras driving a minivan toward the NYPD’s 88th Precinct after midnight, as protests over police brutality and the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police turned raucous. According to the complaint Rahman, 31, got out of the minivan, lit a bottle containing a chemical, and hurled it into the broken window of an NYPD patrol car. No one was hurt.
She then allegedly got back into the minivan driven by Mattis, 32, and the two were subsequently arrested by officers who observed “several precursor items to build a Molotov cocktail,” including a lighter, a Budweiser beer bottle filled with toilet paper, and a liquid suspected to be gasoline. The government claims they were also photographed by a witness earlier in the night “while they were attempting to incite others to commit attacks with Molotov cocktails they provided.”
The two defendants were each released Monday night on $250,000 bond, with home confinement and electronic monitoring. But the government -- which lost an appeal earlier that day to keep them in jail -- went back to court Tuesday. It’s now seeking an emergency order from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to detain them again.
In its latest court filing, federal prosecutors allege Mattis and Rahman “were caught on camera firebombing an NYPD vehicle.” It also argued that each defendant is an attorney who attended prestigious universities and law schools and was well aware of the severity of their conduct. It said home detention with electronic monitoring is “insufficient to protect the community and to guard against the risk of flight,” and it cited the ongoing environment of protests in New York City.
A woman from Catskill, New York is being held without bail in connection to a separate Molotov cocktail attack on another police car in Brooklyn last Friday night. She has been arrested 11 times in 11 different states.
Friends and colleagues of both Rahman and Mattis did not want to speculate about the charges, which have yet to be proven, but described the two young attorneys as people with deep connections to their family and communities.
“She's the best friend anyone can ask for,” said Salmah Rizvi, a friend. ”She’s a compassionate listener and she has an empathetic heart.”
Rizvi said they met in 2014 while they were at different law schools, and shared an interest in helping refugees. Rahman was at Fordham University, which she also attended as an undergraduate. Born in Pakistan, she came to the U.S. as a young child with her parents and grew up in Bay Ridge. Rizvi called her friend a “true Brooklynite who loves everything New York,” from Cardi B to the New York Yankees.
She said Rahman interned at the Center for Constitutional Rights and has attended protests in the past but believes in non-violent resistance. “She’s never promoted violence and she’d never harm another human being,” she added.
Rahman joined Bronx Legal Services almost a year ago, working as a housing attorney for low-income tenants facing eviction. Her supervisor, Jackie Sullivan, called her “dedicated and driven,” often working late nights despite her long commute from Bay Ridge, where she lives with her mother. Her father died eight years ago, according to Rizvi.
Rahman’s friend and co-defendant, Mattis, is a native of East New York whose parents were Jamaican immigrants. He attended a private boarding school through Prep for Prep, which helps low-income students who excel in school. He went on to attend Princeton University as an undergraduate and NYU School of Law.
Creighton Davis, a fellow 2016 NYU law school graduate, said they bonded over their shared experience working with Teach for America. He said he worked in the Bronx while Mattis worked in New Orleans. He described his friend as warm and funny.
“He’s somebody that was passionate about justice in all forms,” he said. “I really would like to emphasize how big of a heart he has and how generous and good natured he is.”
Davis has fond memories of them laughing late into the night while studying together for exams, and helping other students through the Black Law Students Association. He said he admired Mattis for continuing to play a leadership role in East New York, where he served on the community board. Both of Mattis’s parents are deceased. After his mother died last year, an attorney at Federal Defenders said he moved into her house where he lives with his sister.
Last year, Mattis won a Commitment to Justice Award from Her Justice, a group helps low-income women. Executive director Amy Barasch said he put in long hours on two appeals to get a single mother adequate child support. “The work he did with us was excellent and he was considered a real star volunteer attorney for the organization,” she added.
Mattis joined the corporate practice group of the law firm Pryor Cashman in 2018, and was furloughed in April because of the coronavirus pandemic. He was suspended Monday without pay pending the resolution of the criminal proceeding. “As we confront critical issues around historic and ongoing racism and inequity in our society, I am saddened to see this young man allegedly involved in the worst kind of reaction to our shared outrage over what had occurred,” said managing partner Ronald H. Shechtman.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled on June 12th for Mattis and Rahman, when a judge will hear the government’s case and determine whether there’s enough cause to proceed. But as long as certain court functions are halted during the pandemic, a grand jury cannot hear the case for an indictment.
Beth Fertig is a senior reporter covering immigration, courts, and legal affairs at WNYC. You can follow her on Twitter at @bethfertig.
