On the night of September 29, 2019, a Middle Eastern 15-year-old male Ali Al-Burkat was shot while riding in the back seat of a car in north Lincoln, near North 7th Street and Fletcher Avenue. The driver sped to a parking lot at 14th and Superior Streets to seek help, where officers found Al-Burkat and began CPR before he was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. An autopsy later determined he died from a single gunshot wound to the back.
Detectives gathered shell casings from the vehicle and collected surveillance video as they worked to reconstruct what had happened. Investigators ultimately concluded that Al-Burkat and others had gone to the area to rob a drug dealer of marijuana; police emphasized that the dealer was not associated with the shooting.
After months of investigation, Lincoln police arrested 24-year-old Majdal K. Elias on February 26 27, 2020, on suspicion of second-degree murder and related weapons offenses. He pleaded not guilty, and in April 2022 a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder and three gun charges. In May 2022, a judge sentenced Elias to 90 to 140 years in prison; under Nebraska law, he will be required to serve at least half of that time.
Detectives also arrested 31-year-old Sanaa Osman on June 30, 2020, for tampering with physical evidence after investigators learned of a letter and hand-drawn map indicating where the murder weapon had been left. In June 2023, the Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed Elias s conviction and sentence, rejecting his challenges to the admission of evidence and leaving the verdict and punishment intact.
