On a Friday evening in Moorhead, Minnesota, the life of 32-year-old Black/African American man, Abdi Mohamed Abdi, came to a violent end. On September 10, 2021, police responded to the sound of gunshots near the intersection of 17th Street and 30th Avenue South around 8:00 p.m. Arriving at the scene, officers discovered Abdi, who had sustained multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy would later confirm that he died from these injuries.
The initial investigation quickly painted a grim picture of his final moments.
According to court documents and surveillance footage, Abdi had been with other people at a gas station but had remained in the car while his companions went inside. A man, later identified as Idris Haji-Mohamed, was dropped off nearby. He entered the store, purchased cigarettes, and briefly spoke to the occupants of the car Abdi was in before walking away. Later, as Abdi was having a cigarette at a nearby apartment, Haji-Mohamed allegedly emerged from his car and began chasing Abdi while firing a gun. Surveillance video captured the terrifying chase through a parking lot, showing Haji-Mohamed shooting Abdi twice. After Abdi collapsed, his pursuer stood over him and fired five more shots at point-blank range. A crucial piece of evidence was left behind when the gunman, in the process of reloading after the magazine fell out of his weapon, dropped his wallet containing his identification.
The investigation led to the arrest of Idris Haji-Mohamed in Rochester, Minnesota, just three days after the shooting. He was initially charged with second-degree murder. Another man, Ibrahim Abdiaziz Isaac, was also implicated and arrested. Prosecutors alleged that Isaac had driven Haji-Mohamed from St. Cloud to the Fargo-Moorhead area on the day of the killing and provided him with the car used in the crime. In December 2021, a Clay County grand jury indicted both men on more serious charges. Haji-Mohamed's charge was elevated to first-degree premeditated murder, and Isaac was indicted for aiding and abetting first-degree premeditated murder.
The legal proceedings that followed took different paths for the two men. Idris Haji-Mohamed faced a mandatory sentence of life in prison if convicted of the first-degree murder charge. Ibrahim Abdiaziz Isaac was convicted in February 2023 and sentenced to life in prison without parole. However, his attorneys appealed the verdict. In a significant turn of events, the Minnesota Supreme Court overturned Isaac's conviction in the summer of 2024. The court ruled that the evidence presented did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Isaac knew Haji-Mohamed intended to kill someone. While the motive for the shooting was not made clear, authorities stated they did not believe it was a random act.
