Man killed outside Brooklyn Center hotel 'was a peacemaker,' friends say

People who have known and worked with Mohamed Jama say their gut feeling is that he was using his well-honed skills to break up a fight when he was shot and killed before dawn Wednesday in Brooklyn Center.

Meanwhile Thursday, police said they were still seeking the public's help to find and arrest those responsible for the shooting outside the Crowne Plaza Hotel, where Jama had been visiting some Somali basketball players who were staying there. "We know there are witnesses out there," police spokesman Stu Robinson said. "Unless they step up, the people responsible are not going to be held accountable."

Police have said that they do not believe Jama's death was drug- or gang-related.

'He was a storyteller'

Jama, 30, who had coached Somali basketball teams and provided volunteer security at their games and weddings, is well known and respected as a mentor and leader in the immigrant community, said Saeed Fahia, executive director of the Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota.

Jama was very patient and respectful, and had spent much of his 20s as an outreach worker with homeless youths and mentoring young Somali boys, said leaders at the Brian Coyle Community Center, located near the Cedar Riverside Apartments.

"He was a storyteller," said Rhonda Eastlund, who worked at the Coyle Center. "At staff meetings, he would tell stories about what he did out on the street, but they always had a point." He was also good at breaking up fights and, Eastlund said, that's what she suspects that he was doing when he was shot.

Fahia agreed: "I think he was trying to help somebody."

Jama mentored Qasim Bashir, named the 2007-08 coach of the year in the Somali Basketball League. "He helped me and my assistant coach [learn how] to coach basketball," Bashir said.

Jama had volunteered to lead the small security team at the annual Somali American Independence Day sports tournament for the past five years, said Abdi Asis Warsame, a tournament organizer.

"He was a peacemaker," Warsame said. "He was a charismatic person who had a gift for understanding all aspects of life in working with troubled youth of different backgrounds and ages."

He said dozens of people who knew Jama signed a sheet of comments for him at a memorial set up at the Coyle Center.

Warsame and Bashir said Jama was not vengeful. After his brother, Arie Jama, 27, was shot to death in south Minneapolis in December, Bashir asked him what he was thinking. "He said, 'Don't look for revenge.' He said they will pay the punishment some day in God's hands," Bashir said.

Jama's funeral was held Thursday at the Islamic Cultural Community Center in northeast Minneapolis. Jama, who was married with a second child expected soon, came to Minneapolis from Kenya as a teenager and attended Dunwoody Institute after high school, friends said. He spoke Arabic, Swahili and Somali, as well as English. He ran into trouble with gangs and the law in his teens. But his faith helped him refocus and use his experience to reach troubled youths, Eastlund said.

Jama changed his job about three years ago to spend more time with his newborn daughter, Jama, Eastlund said. But he recently got a job working with troubled youth in north Minneapolis. She added: "He really enjoyed helping kids."

In a new land, no peace

Jama's sister, Asha Abdullahi, said her close-knit family's religious faith is helping them cope with her two brothers' deaths.

"In Islam, the only way you can learn about life is to believe in death," she said. "We're all going to die, but people die in different ways. Both my brothers passed away in a very painful way."

"Who knows who did it, you know?" she said. "Are these teenagers? Are they in gangs? I don't know what they are doing. Why am I in Minnesota? I came here for safety. I thought there would be peace here. I never thought my brothers would be shot. I always thought they would die, but not like this."

Staff writer Abby Simons contributed to this report. Jim Adams • 612-673-7658