Friday, December 11, 2015
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More than 300 people marched through the streets of Capitol Hill Thursday night, waving signs and banners saying “We Want Answers,” and “Justice 4 Hamza,” following the death of 16-year-old student Hamza Warsame, who was found dead after a fall from a six-story roof Saturday.“It's a very dangerous thing, when you have a community sitting around wondering is this a hate crime,” said Anny Khan, Chief Executive of Americans for Refugees & Immigrants—which organized the rally. “What happened here is you have rumors flying around, things happen, because of these types of circumstances."
Warsame, a Running Start student at Seattle Central College, fell 60 feet to his death off a building in the 300 block of Summit Avenue East Saturday afternoon.
His sister told KIRO 7 he went there to study with another student and was dead an hour later.
Within days, rumors started to swirl on social media that Warsame, part of the growing local Somali Muslim community, had been murdered.
Warsame's family expressed frustration when they said SPD would not talk to them about his death in the first three days.
On Thursday, Warsame's family told KIRO 7 that Seattle police visited with them in their home the previous night, and told them they assigned an assistant chief to the investigation. Warsame’s family believes two things are certain.
“Hamza did not commit suicide, and this was no accident,” said Warsame’s sister, Ikram Warsame. “My brother did not know that apartment before in his life, this was his first time visiting it, and so for him to be pronounced dead moments after visiting, there's something that just doesn't sit well with me."
In its released statement, the SPD asked the community to be "patient and avoid jumping to conclusions while detectives conduct their work."
Warsame said SPD promised to keep the family in the loop as they receive information.
“I'm holding them to their promise," Warsame said. “I hope they can find the truth soon as to what happened to my brother, that's all we want, that's all we want to know, what happened to Hamza."