We now know who was being shot at on Harriet Avenue. In court documents, Bloomington police allege that Abdirahman Ahmed Jama, 18, was the main target of the Oct. 6 shooting. He was in a car with Mahamed Ali Haji, 20, and Omar Adan Abdullahi, 19. The 3 told investigators they'd been playing basketball in Minneapolis and had driven to Bloomington to drop Jama off at home when multiple people opened fire. Home security footage caught at least 2 gunmen, and the car was hit multiple times. Police called it "a retaliatory shooting due to other recent shootings."
Those recent shootings include the one outside Eden Prairie's homecoming game on Oct. 2. Jama, Haji and Abdullahi are 3 of the 4 men charged with third-degree riot over the fight that came before that gunfire. Police say the Bloomington shooting may have been payback for it.
Here's what prosecutors say happened in Eden Prairie. In the parking lot, a Hyundai Sonata and a Subaru Legacy pulled up and about 10 people started fighting. Prosecutors say Adam Abdihakeem Adam, 18, went back to his car and shot Aden and another person, hitting both. Adam faces 2 counts of second-degree assault and a riot charge. He was arrested Oct. 9 and released on bond. The complaint warns of "imminent harm done against others in retaliation for this incident."
The trail goes past those 2 cities. Court documents say Abdullahi is "associated with" a firearm linked to Mohamed Hassan Salad, 19, of Minneapolis, who was killed in Burnsville on Jan. 25. Burnsville police haven't announced any arrests in that case. Jama also faces a charge of carrying a pistol without a permit after a June 7 incident at a graduation at Grace Church, where officers found a Glock 27. An extreme risk protection order has been filed against him. Investigators wrote that the 3 men "remained vague" when questioned.
Jama, Abdullahi and Haji made their first court appearances Wednesday, Oct. 14. Abdullahi asked for a speedy trial, and his jury trial is set for Dec. 7. Aden had an active arrest warrant.
Here's how we got here. Police said that on Oct. 6, several armed people opened fire near Harriet Avenue South. 1 person had a minor injury, and Chief Booker Hodges said it was luck nobody died. That afternoon he stood with Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt and the Edina and Eden Prairie police chiefs and spoke to the shooters directly: "We know who you are. You are going to jail." Witt said, "We took our foot off the gas."
Before that, shots were fired at a basketball court at Our Lady of Grace Church in Edina on Sept. 22, and nobody was hurt. Officials describe the shooters as young Somali-Americans who are often from comfortable homes, with feuds that start on social media.
So the Harriet Avenue case looks different now. The people in the car have names, records and riot charges. The people who fired 100-plus rounds down a residential street have not been charged. Hodges' "You are going to jail" is still a promise to them, not a result.
