Slain security guard recalled as quiet, friendly man

Abdirahman Mohamed, son of shooting victim Abdi Haji Mohamed Liiban, is consoled by community members. KYNDELL HARKNESS/STAR TRIBUNE

On most nights he perched behind the security desk in the lobby of 3110 Blaisdell Av. S., keeping a watchful eye for any troublemakers who managed to slip past the front door.

Show your ID as you walk by or risk being escorted not so gently into the good night. Those he recognized as residents, he let off with a smile and a wave.

Some of those residents grew worried when Abdi Haji Mohamed Liiban didn't show up for work Monday. It wasn't like him, they insisted, to miss a night behind his desk at the easternmost building of the Horn Towers, a high-rise residential complex for the elderly just south of Lake Street, sandwiched between Pillsbury and Blaisdell avenues.

Hours later, they learned why: someone shot him as he walked on Pleasant Avenue near Lake Street E., less than two blocks from the Towers. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The following day, residents there remembered him as a quiet, friendly man who took pride in his job.

Their recollections of Liiban seemed to begin the same way.

"He was a very good guy," Reiland said, "I didn't see him ever angry."

"He was a man who was committed to his job, and he was a man who could separate those doing good from the wrongdoers," another resident, Maryan Mohamed, said through an interpreter, during a visit with the local police precinct commander.

Ahmed Noor nodded as others shared memories. Afterward, he recalled receiving a phone call from Liiban just last week to congratulate him on the birth of his first child and to offer advice.

"He was a good guy. He cared about the community," Noor said.

Friends said that Liiban, a Somali immigrant who had lived in Minneapolis for 15 years, was the uncle of Somali Canadian artist K'Naan. The popular rapper, friends say, is expected to attend his uncle's funeral, which hasn't been set.

Homicide detectives spent the better part of the evening scouring for spent bullet casings and other physical evidence that could solve the case.

Police don't believe the shooting was connected to another homicide 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.

Liiban's 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. Across the river, St. Paul has faced a similar series of violent attacks.

The day after the latest slaying, Minneapolis police officers and community leaders fanned out across the area to reassure unnerved residents that they were working to catch those responsible.

Police have complained that few witnesses have come forward, with some reluctant to come forward out of safety concerns.