Update on One of the Six Memorial Day Shooting Victims in MN

From the June 1, 2011 STrib:

'We need you to come forward'

• Article by: ABBY SIMONS , Star Tribune

Members of Minneapolis' Somali community gathered near where one of their own was slain.

Less than an hour after she buried him on Wednesday, Hawa Aden stood in a busy Minneapolis parking lot not far from where her son was shot in the head three days before.
A crowd of more than 100 members of her Somali community who had gathered for a vigil stood silent as she talked about 26-year-old Guled Hashi Mohamed. She described a doting husband and father, a college graduate and social worker who wanted to go back to Somalia to help refugees like himself.
Aden said he was a good man who didn't deserve what happened to him but who now deserved justice. She implored members of her community to deliver.
"I know not everyone comes forward. We need you to come forward," she said in Somali, her voice rising. "You know the suffering. This has gone too far! This has to stop!"
Minneapolis police continue to investigate the slaying. Mohamed, of Burnsville, died 11 hours after someone shot him on Sunday night as he sat in a car outside a restaurant at Nicollet and Groveland Avenues S. A passenger in the car drove it to a gas station before Mohamed was rushed to Hennepin County Medical Center.
He was among six people shot during a night of unusually heavy gunfire in Minneapolis. Police said only two of the shootings, at one location in the Warehouse District, were thought to be connected.
Police had made no arrests in Mohamed's killing as of Wednesday and had yet to identify a motive. A police report said several unidentified people witnessed the killing.

Some of Mohamed's relatives and friends urged the community to cooperate with police, while others at the vigil condemned investigators for not promising enough protection to those who come forward. Some said it felt like the police, by saying not enough people are talking, blamed the community
"It's very frustrating, extremely frustrating, unbelievable," said Abdigni Ali, who knows Mohamed's family. "It's like we are victimized two times. We don't see the police doing their job, we don't see them arresting them. And you're a victim again when you see blame that somehow you're responsible."

'Help us do it the right way'

Minneapolis City Council Member Robert Lilligren and Lt. Rick Zimmerman, head of the Minneapolis Police Department's homicide unit, stood before the group and urged it to help solve the case. Zimmerman said that although detectives have good leads, a witness needs to come forward.
Zimmerman directed his request toward younger members of the Somali community, especially those who may have been around the night Mohamed was shot.
"I know you're angry," Zimmerman said. "I know you want retribution, and most of all you want justice. Help us do it the right way."
Zimmerman said anyone who doesn't feel comfortable coming to police directly can contact community elders or other trusted community members.
He pointed out that the department has solved tough cases involving the community over the years, including a triple homicide at Seward Market in 2010. In that case, three men were killed, and police arrested two teenagers. It was a crime solved with the community's help, Zimmerman said.
Authorities won't say what Mohamed was doing in the area at the night of the shooting, but they don't believe he was participating in criminal activity.
Mohamed is a graduate of Minnesota State University, Moorhead volunteered for AmeriCorps and planned to attend graduate school at St. Cloud State University, his sister said. He had a criminal record that in addition to minor offenses included a 2010 felony conviction for terroristic threats, for which he was sentenced to probation.
Mohamed's family said he came to the United States at age 12 and worked hard to attend college and support his family. He was the father of 6-month-old Fatimah, and his wife was expecting a second child. Besides them, survivors include his parents and seven siblings.
Amina Hashi Mohamed said that she doesn't know why her brother was shot but that the community largely believes it was a case of mistaken identity.
"What happened to my brother affects every community," she said after the vigil. "This is not just a Somali crime. The people who did this today can move on and do something to another member of another community. This affects everyone's life. It can happen to everybody."
Police asked anyone with information to call the department's tips line at 612-692-8477.