Bilha K. Omare lived in fear of her husband for years. According to a police report on a 911 call she made in late 2008, he had abused her and made threats on her life, crimes that earned him three days in jail and a year on probation.
On Wednesday, police found Omare and two of the couple's three children dead in their Vadnais Heights apartment. Her body was in a bathroom; Ivyn Ogendi, 9, and Kinley Ogendi, 12, were in separate rooms with the doors closed.
Their 3-year-old sister was found later, in a car with their father, Justus O. Kebabe, 43, who was arrested after running out of gas on Interstate 35 near Faribault. Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher said on Thursday that Kebabe told officers he had killed his wife and two children. Charges are expected to be filed on Friday.
Kebabe's only prior contact with police was in December 2008, when he was arrested for misdemeanor domestic assault. The 2008 police report said that Kebabe came to the United States from Kenya in 1996 and that Omare followed in 2003.
Omare, 32, told deputies in 2008 that Kebabe "has threatened to kill her numerous times in the past" and "that Kebabe is more careful with the physical assaults in the USA than in Kenya.
"In Kenya, he has beaten her unconscious," the report said.
Six months after the 2008 assault, Kebabe pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct, served three days in jail and was on probation for a year. After completing a six-week domestic abuse class, he was discharged from probation last Aug. 25.
Fletcher said a relative called on Wednesday concerned about Kebabe's "erratic behavior" and "worried that he was a danger to himself or others." Deputies went to the couple's third-floor apartment in the Willow Ridge Apartments in the 1200 block of County Road D at 11:45 p.m.