Three men and a woman were charged Wednesday with kidnapping and assault after an incident earlier this week in which police said a man was attacked with a crowbar, dragged into car and driven around Minneapolis while the beatings continued.
Arrested and charged with one count of second-degree assault and kidnapping, according to online court records, were: Hafsa Said Abdi, 20, of Eden Prairie, Abdullahi Haji Jama, 27, of Minneapolis, Abdimalik Ahmed Aden, 22, of Minneapolis, and Mustaf Mahad Tahlil, 21, of Chaska. None of the four had lawyers as of Wednesday afternoon.
All are being held in lieu of $100,000 bail and set to make their initial court appearances on Thursday.
The victim, whose age wasn't listed, was found early Tuesday after authorities tracked one of the suspects' phones to a Bloomington parking garage. His condition wasn't immediately known.
According to Hennepin County prosecutors, the altercation started just after 10 p.m. Monday when the victim was contacted by a woman about meeting up. But when he went outside, the three suspects were allegedly waiting and chased him to 24th Street and Elliot Avenue S., where they jumped him, punching, kicking and beating him with the crowbar.
The three men eventually dragged the victim into Abdi's waiting car, the complaints read. Then they drove him around to several homes in the area, he told police. Throughout the ordeal, the men continued to beat him and refused to let him leave, according to prosecutors.
A relative of the victim's later called police to report that he'd been kidnapped and showed them a social media video that appeared to capture the assault.
Authorities later "pinged" Abdi's cellphone and saw that it was in the area of the Southtown mall in Bloomington. That led them to her car, which was found 1:21 Tuesday a.m. in a nearby parking garage, with Abdi, the three men and the victim all still inside.
Abdi later told investigators that she had been upset with the man because he had opened several cellphone lines without her permission and that she had driven to Minneapolis to confront him, according to court filings. She said that a fight broke out between the victim and one of the suspects and that the victim had voluntarily agreed to get into her car.
Libor Jany • 612-673-4064 Twitter:@StribJany
