A man told Minneapolis police that shots had been fired at his car and he was driving away when his vehicle struck someone or something last Wednesday, according to charges filed Tuesday in the hit-and-run death of a 24-year-old bicyclist.
Abdirahman Ali, 25, was charged with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide in the death of Jessica Hanson, who was struck while riding her bicycle on Pleasant Avenue S. near W. 28th Street around 10:30 p.m. last Wednesday. She died two days later.
On Wednesday, bail was set at $10,000.
Police say Ali ran a stop sign and was speeding with his lights turned off when he struck Hanson. He remains in jail and will make his first court appearance Wednesday.
Ali, who lives a couple of miles from the accident site, has had several scrapes with the law, including carrying a firearm in public without a permit, fleeing police and driving without proof of insurance. His license is currently canceled.
Nearly two years ago, his brother Ahmed Ali pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted aggravated robbery as part of a deadly shooting at Minneapolis' Seward Market in which three men died. Ahmed Ali is serving an 18-year prison sentence.
Hanson, who worked as a server at the Republic bar in the Uptown neighborhood, moved to Minneapolis from the west-central Minnesota city of Hoffman. Her funeral will be held there Thursday, but there have been almost daily community prayer vigils near the intersection where the collision occurred as she biked to her boyfriend's home.
Police have thanked witnesses for coming forward and providing key information that helped solve the case. One witness followed the driver and wrote down the car's license plate, the complaint said. Police traced the vehicle to Ali's address, where his sister said her family owned such a car, a baby blue Toyota Camry.