Abdulahi Kadir Awuni, a 19-year-old from Minneapolis, was tragically shot and killed on November 22, 2015, while sitting in a car with two others outside the Cedar 94 apartment building in the Seward neighborhood. Awuni and his companion, Rastem Abubakar, were both pronounced dead at the scene, while a third person in the car survived with non-critical injuries.
The incident occurred in the evening and was described as a brazen shooting, with the suspects approaching the parked vehicle before opening fire.
Awuni, a well-known spoken word artist in his community, was about to start a new job at a local theater company before his life was cut short. The killings shocked the local East African community, and community leaders urged witnesses to come forward to help solve the case. However, distrust of law enforcement in the immigrant community, rooted in experiences from war-torn homelands, has hindered progress. Despite calls for cooperation and multiple appeals from the police for public assistance, no arrests have been made, leaving the case unsolved.
The deaths of Awuni and Abubakar are part of a broader wave of violence affecting young men in the Somali and Oromo communities in Minneapolis, raising concerns about the safety of local neighborhoods and the need for stronger community-police relations.
