Chardid Hachi Farah was a 16-year-old Black male from Minneapolis who was remembered as having a big heart. Those who knew him said he was thoughtful, honest, and smiled a lot. He was known to joke around, to forgive people even when they had wronged him, and to put his loved ones before himself.
On Halloween evening, October 31, 2023, Chardid and his cousin, 16-year-old Diriye Abdi Muhumed, went to meet two other teenagers in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.
Just after 5 p.m., near the intersection of Zane Avenue and Zane Court, a shooting was reported. Police officers arrived to find both Chardid and Diriye in the street with gunshot wounds. Diriye was pronounced dead at the scene. Chardid was rushed to a hospital in critical condition, but he succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds on November 3, 2023.
Investigators learned that the shooting stemmed from a dispute over a missing gun. Text messages recovered from Diriye Muhumed’s phone showed that he and one of the suspects had been arguing and exchanging threats. The last message was sent about four hours before the shooting. The two cousins had reportedly traveled to the neighborhood to meet the suspects near the home of one of them.
According to court documents, the confrontation escalated quickly. One of the suspects, 17-year-old Courtney Lesean Parker, allegedly struck Muhumed in the head with a gun. During the struggle that followed, Parker allegedly fired a fatal shot into Muhumed’s chest. The second suspect, 16-year-old Jaqual Ditez Sims-Miller, then allegedly shot and killed Chardid Farah. Sims-Miller later admitted to investigators that he shot one of the victims.
Both suspects were arrested. Jaqual Ditez Sims-Miller of Brooklyn Park was charged in a juvenile petition for his alleged role in the shooting. Courtney Lesean Parker of Minneapolis was charged with two counts of second-degree murder. In May 2024, a Hennepin County judge ruled that Parker would stand trial as an adult.
