Abdullah Arif, a 48-year-old Middle Eastern / Arab man from Stillwater, Minnesota, was a business owner in Saint Paul. He owned a tobacco shop on the city's west side, where a fatal encounter took place on the afternoon of February 16, 2023.
Shortly after 3:30 p.m. that day, a man wearing a balaclava face mask entered Arif’s shop. When Arif asked the man to remove the mask, he refused. The man then pulled down the store’s door chime, stole it, and walked out.
Arif followed him outside onto the 500 block of Stryker Avenue to confront him. The man immediately shot Arif.
Saint Paul police officers were called to the scene and found Arif on the ground with a gunshot wound to his torso. They rendered first aid until medics arrived and transported him to Regions Hospital, but he did not survive his injuries. His death was recorded as the third homicide in Saint Paul that year.
The investigation progressed quickly. The next day, on February 17, 2023, police arrested 21-year-old Elias Kareem Hany-Aly in Minneapolis and booked him on suspicion of murder. It was later reported that just 40 minutes before the shooting, Hany-Aly had been in a Ramsey County courtroom for a hearing on a separate firearms possession case and had been allowed to remain on conditional release.
Elias Kareem Hany-Aly was charged with second-degree murder for the death of Abdullah Arif. He later pleaded guilty. In June 2024, a Ramsey County District Court judge sentenced Hany-Aly to nearly 14 years in prison.
