Founder of KC nonprofit focused on preventing re-incarceration is charged with murder
A Kansas City entrepreneur who is locally lauded for his work helping to prevent people from being incarcerated has been charged with murder in a mid-July homicide.
Na’im Al-Amin, 44, of Kansas City, was charged on July 17 with one count of second-degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action and one charge of unlawful use of a weapon, court records show. Al-Amin is the founder and CEO of Swagg Inc., a nonprofit focused on preventing people from being incarcerated and helping those released from prison to re-enter society.
It does not appear he had been arrested as of Monday. No one by Al-Amin’s name is being held at the Jackson County jail, and an initial court appearance has not yet been set.
The shooting
At about 1:52 a.m. on July 14, police were called to the area of East 83rd Street and Troost Avenue on a report of shots fired, according to charging documents. Police at the scene found two spent casings in the driveway, but did not see any blood. They left.
Several hours later, at about 9 a.m., Kansas City police were called back to the area where a man was found lying in the backyard of a home near the 1300 block of East 81st Terrace. The victim, later identified as Todd Tillman, 36, was declared dead at the scene, police told media at the time.
Police soon obtained surveillance footage of the area which showed Tillman arrive at the front door of the home on 81st Terrace at about 1:50 a.m. asking for help. Then he walked to the back of the home where he collapsed.
More surveillance footage obtained by police showed that at 1:49 a.m., a man with medium length hair, a beard and a black tank top with the KC logo was seen holding a gun. He walked from an SUV and out of sight of a camera.
A voice off-camera is heard saying “What’s going on, man?” and “What did I do?” before two gunshots sound, according to charging documents.
Incarcerated since childhood
Al-Amin’s face had been shared all over local news in recent years for another reason. He has a compelling narrative, and one intertwined with hope and perseverance.
Al-Amin tells the story often: He was 8 years old the first time he was put into handcuffs, he wrote in a 2021 guest blog for the DeBruce Foundation.
Then a boy from Junction City, Kansas, but raised in the foster care system in Los Angeles, Al-Amin had been caught trying to rob someone.
“Since then, I spent time in juvenile detention, county jail, and finally, in prison,” he wrote. “I was released for the last time on March 22, 2018. Today, my mission is to help others never go in and never go back.”
In between his second prison stint and his third, Al-Amin, who at that point had a degree in sociology, said he couldn’t find work after college. His cannabis conviction followed him, he said in a Kansas State University profile.
In 2018, before he was released from prison the most recent time, Al-Amin said he started dreaming up an idea for a nonprofit that would provide re-entry services to folks like himself; re-entry services that he wasn’t offered.
“The vision for Swagg Inc. was to create a model that innovatively disrupts mass incarceration,” he said in the K-State profile. “I designed what I wish I had. The goal of the program is to create a diversity, equity and inclusion model that elevates returning citizens.”
According to the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office, Swagg Inc. (which stands for Serve, Witness And Give Guidance - Inspiration Never Ceases), legally formed in August 2019, but was dissolved in late 2022 after the nonprofit failed to file a registration report.
While the nonprofit was in operation, Al-Amin partnered with several local groups to grow his reach and the resources provided to those seeking help, including Big Brothers Big Sisters Kansas City, the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and JE Dunn Construction.
“JE Dunn has worked with Swagg, Inc. and other similar programs to facilitate the productive employment and positive reengagement of these previously incarcerated individuals back into society,” Erin Lambert, a spokesperson with the construction company, said in a statement Monday. “We are unaware of any details surrounding charges against Mr. Al-Amin.”
Michael Lawrence, the CEO of Big Brother Big Sisters Kansas City, told The Star in a statement Monday that Al-Amin used to be a member of a 30-person advisory group focused on justice, diversity and inclusion initiatives at the local organization.
“When we found out he was being investigated for a crime against a person he was immediately removed from this group,” Lawrence wrote.
The phone number listed on the nonprofit’s website was disconnected as of Monday.
The Star’s Matti Gellman contributed.
This story was originally published July 31, 2023 at 6:41 PM.
