Thursday January 28, 2021
Abdiwasa Farah (Courtesy Ahmil Jihad)
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Two men, one of whom is affiliated with a Somali gang and the other related to members of that gang, have been found guilty in a shooting that left a teenager dead nearly two years ago.
The shooting happened March 1, 2019 on the 300 block of Cedar Avenue in Minneapolis’s Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. First responders found one man dead and one other injured, with bullet wounds to his spine. A third victim showed up at Hennepin Healthcare a short time later.
The teen was later identified as 17-year-old Abdiwasa Farah. He had been shot twice in the head and seven times in the back.
Surveillance outside of the Red Sea Bar and Restaurant showed the three victims sitting in a parked vehicle just before midnight. Video showed a Chevrolet pull up behind them, and two gunmen walking up and shooting. Both surveillance and interviews with victim in a prior shooting at the Karmel Mall led investigators to the two individuals charged.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office says that, on Tuesday, a jury found 23-year-old Omar Hassan, of Minneapolis, guilty of premeditated first-degree murder in the teenager’s death. He was also found guilty of attempted first-degree murder in the shooting that ultimately paralyzed one of the other victims. He had fled to Kenya before being taken into custody by U.S. Marshalls.
Last week, 23-year-old Abdilahi Ibrahim, of Minneapolis, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. The county attorney’s office says he is a known member of the Somali Outlawz gang. He tried to flee to Texas.
Hassan is expected to get a mandatory life sentence in prison, while Ibrahim faces 330 months at his sentencing later Wednesday.