Three Somali men were charged on Aug. 19 in Hennepin County District Court with assault and attempted murder for allegedly shooting two people on Aug. 14 in the outdoor plaza area outside the Riverside Plaza towers. (Official police complaints mistakenly list the address as 1615 Fourth Ave. S., rather than Fourth Street South.)

Taken into custody were 19-year-old Ahmed Ali, aka Adnan Isse Ali; 21-year-old Abdikani Ali Nour; and 20-year-old Abdulsalam Mohamed Usee. All men have Minneapolis addresses. Each man is charged with two counts of attempted second-degree murder, one count of first-degree assault and one count of second-degree assault; all are felony charges. Bail for each man was set at $1 million.

The two victims reportedly were sitting in the plaza area when they were approached by three Somali males, who began shooting at them with semi-automatic weapons. One victim was shot in the buttocks; the other was shot in the chest and stomach. Both were taken to Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC).

A witness had seen three men get out of a Mitsubishi SUV in a parking lot and head westbound on foot down Cedar Avenue. The witness, who had written down the license plate number, then heard the gunshots coming from the Cedar Riverside complex area and observed the same three males running northeast toward Riverside Avenue.

A Metro Transit Police (MTP) officer spotted the Mitsubishi shortly thereafter; the SUV was stopped in the middle of the 1900 block of South Eighth Street with its lights on and the doors open. One man was standing in the grass next to the vehicle and another was running along the wall near I-94. The officer made a u-turn and followed the vehicle. Minneapolis police subsequently stopped the vehicle and detained six males. Two semi-automatic handguns, both listed as stolen from a Minnetonka gun shop, were recovered from the area where the Mitsubishi had been spotted by the MTP officer.

last revised: September 3, 2008

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