Two men are accused of firing guns from a moving car at another vehicle on Highway 100 in Saint Louis Park, hitting the driver in the ankle, according to complaints filed in Hennepin County.
Ayub Abdirashiid Said, 19, of Coon Rapids, and Mohamed Ahmed Mohamed, who was 19 at the time of the alleged offense, of Blaine, are each charged with felony drive-by shooting toward an occupied motor vehicle and felony second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon. A judge issued the complaints Nov. 4 and ordered both men detained with bail set at $250,000 each. The drive-by count carries a maximum of 10 years and/or $20,000, and the assault count carries a maximum of 7 years and/or $4,200 to $14,000.
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According to the complaints, officers responded at about 6:03 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 30, to a report of a shooting on southbound Highway 100 near the Excelsior Boulevard exit. The victims’ white Honda Accord had pulled to the side of the highway. The driver had been shot in the left ankle, and the front passenger was not injured.
Officers saw what appeared to be six bullet strikes to the Honda, mostly on the driver’s side. A bullet hole in the trunk was consistent with a shot from the passenger side of the suspect vehicle. Officers found several discharged cartridge casings of two calibers, .45 and 9 mm, in the southbound lanes.
The complaints say the driver and the passenger had left a restaurant and were driving to Minnetonka. The passenger told officers he recognized the suspect vehicle from the restaurant parking lot, noting its heavily tinted windows and a license plate starting with “Z.” The driver described it as a new black Hyundai Sonata with dark tint and a Minnesota plate starting with “Z.” He said it left the restaurant parking lot after him and he believed it was following them.
Video surveillance showed the Hyundai following the Honda from the restaurant to the shooting scene. It stayed a few vehicles behind, then sped up and traveled alongside the Honda at a spot consistent with where the casings were found, the complaints say. The Hyundai is registered to a third man, identified in the complaints as Co-Defendant 1, whose phone data placed him near the restaurant and the shooting.
Gym video from about 12:28 p.m. that day showed Co-Defendant 1 driving the Hyundai with Mohamed in the rear seat and Said in the front passenger seat, the complaints say. Investigators believe Co-Defendant 1 drove while Mohamed and Said fired guns at the Honda. Phone data and social media records placed both men at the gym, the restaurant and the scene.
The complaints say a National Integrated Ballistic Information Network analysis linked the .45 casings to five other shootings. They say the driver was also the target of a Feb. 13 shooting in Burnsville involving the same .45 firearm. The 9 mm casings matched a Glock found in the possession of an associate of the three men on June 10.
Both men are in custody, the complaint against Said says.
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Jurisdictional Context
Hennepin County is Minnesota’s most populous jurisdiction. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office handles felony prosecutions across Minneapolis and 44 other cities; the Fourth Judicial District presides over felony arraignments and trials at the Hennepin County Government Center in downtown Minneapolis.
