6 Somali men shot to death since December

6 Somali men shot to death since December
Abdishakur Adan Hassan, killed Monday as he went to the Village Market Mall in Minneapolis for a haircut, was the sixth Twin Cities Somali man slain since December.

By DAVID CHANEN, Star Tribune

Last update: September 30, 2008 - 8:45 PM

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Since December, six Somali men from the Twin Cities, all under 40, have been shot to death. It's a disturbing trend that has police and local Somali leaders working together to find solutions to stop the violence.

The most recent victim was Abdishakur Adan Hassan, 21, of Minneapolis. On Monday, the eve of a major religious holiday in the Somali Muslim community, he went to get a haircut at a crowded mall in south Minneapolis. He was shot in the chest in a back parking lot of the Village Market Mall about 9 p.m.

"We are not just looking at this case, but more broadly at the violence in the Somali community to see if there are any connections or patterns," Capt. Amelia Huffman Tuesday.

It was too early to know why Hassan was killed, she said, but witnesses have come forward with information. Hassan had been kicked out the mall earlier in the day, police said, but it's unclear if that played a role in his death.

Hassan's death doesn't appear to be related to the shooting death of 20-year-old Augsburg College student Ahmednur Ali or a shooting in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood this weekend. A 16-year-old has been arrested in Ali's death.

The increasing violence has parents scared and their children wondering who might be next, said Shukri Omar, Hassan's cousin.

"To be honest, I don't know what's going on with my people," she said. "We came to the United States because of the fighting in Somalia, to get a great education, to live a better life."

Police have been meeting with community members to enlist their help to hand out crime prevention information and identify problems before they get out of control, said Third Precinct police Inspector Lucy Gerold. There has been some lower level crime around the mall, but "it's not constantly on our radar as a source of problems," she said.