Abdirahman Mohamed, son of shooting victim Mohamed Haji, addresses police officials and community leaders. KYNDELL HARKNESS/STAR TRIBUNE
Community leaders have identified a man who was fatally shot Monday on the border of the Whittier and Lyndale neighborhoods as Abdi Haji Mohamed Liiban, of Minneapolis.
Haji, who was believed to be in his early 60s, was shot around 4:45 p.m. near the corner of Pleasant Avenue and Lake Street E., as he walked to work, said Jibril Afyare, a community activist and president of the Somali Citizens League. His death was the city's fifth homicide in six days and the 40th this year, leaving Minneapolis on pace to log its largest number of homicides in about a decade.
Police said the shooting didn't appear to be connected another fatal shooting over the weekend, in which officers found a man suffering from gunshot wounds in an alley in the 3700 block of 1st Avenue S. The man, whose name hasn't been released, was taken to an area hospital, where he died early Monday, police said.
Haji, community leaders said, worked the night shift as a security guard at the Horn Towers, where residents remembered him as a quiet, friendly man who took pride in his job securing the building.
Police have not announced an arrest in the case.
Witnesses described the shooting suspect as a young male, clad in a black hooded sweatshirt and jeans, who was seen getting into a black car that fled north on Pleasant Avenue, according to a scanner traffic recording posted on the MN Police Clips Facebook page.
