Tawfiq Abdul Haqq

Tawfiq Abdul Haqq was a 33 year old man from Temple Hills, Maryland, who died on August 21, 2026, after being shot by a Prince George's County police officer in the Suitland area of the county. He had not been a public figure before his death. He became known to a wider audience only because of the circumstances of that shooting, which the Maryland Office of the Attorney General's Independent Investigations Division opened an inquiry into and which his family and their attorneys have since fought to have fully explained.

According to the Maryland Attorney General's Office, the shooting took place in the 4500 block of Reamy Drive in Suitland on the evening of Friday, August 21, 2026. Officials said Haqq was behind the wheel of a car and was reportedly driving toward officers when he was shot. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The Independent Investigations Division, which by state law reviews all police-involved deaths in Maryland, took charge of the case, and both the officer and Haqq were formally identified by investigators in the days that followed.

Little has been reported about Haqq's life before the shooting: reputable coverage so far has focused almost entirely on the circumstances of his death rather than on his background, work or family life, and this page will be updated as more is confirmed. His family has said publicly that they do not accept the official framing of events and want to know why he was reportedly being followed by police before the encounter that killed him, a question that remains at the center of the case.

The shooting quickly became a focal point for renewed scrutiny of police use of force in Prince George's County. More than a month afterward, the Maryland Attorney General's Office released body camera and dash camera footage from the incident, an action that came exactly one month after the shooting itself. The family's attorneys, including Malcolm Ruff of the firm Murphy, Falcon and Murphy, held a news conference and rally in Lanham, Maryland, where more than 200 people gathered to demand accountability and what they called justice for Tawfiq.

As of this writing, the investigation by the Independent Investigations Division remains open, and no criminal charges have been announced against the officer involved. The attorney general's office has said the case will continue to be reviewed, and Haqq's family has vowed to keep pressing for answers about why he was stopped, why the encounter escalated, and whether the shooting was justified.