Police say double slaying in south Minneapolis not random

A Minneapolis man and a Columbia Heights woman were killed in the Longfellow neighborhood shooting.

April 12, 2014 at 11:54PM
This apartment parking lot near Lake St. and 29th Avenue S. was the scene of a double homicide overnight, leaving a man and woman shot to death in their parked car and seen Saturday, April 12, 2014, in Minneapolis, MN.
This apartment parking lot near Lake St. and 29th Avenue S. was the scene of a double homicide overnight, leaving a man and woman shot to death in their parked car and seen Saturday, April 12, 2014, in Minneapolis, MN. (Dml - Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

The Hennepin County medical examiner's office on Saturday identified the victims of a double slaying as Dahir Ahmed Abdirahman, 29, of Minneapolis and Tahany Abdi Omar Erbob, 24, of Columbia Heights. They were shot to death Friday night in a car just off E. Lake Street in Minneapolis.

The shooting was not random, but there have been no arrests, police spokesman John Elder said Saturday.

Elder said that officers had responded to a report of gunshots just before 9:30 p.m. on Lake Street and 29th Avenue S. They found the bodies in a car parked in an apartment building parking lot in the Longfellow neighborhood.

Abdirahman was recently released from prison for a 2008 conviction for felony robbery, simple robbery and terroristic threats.

Elder said Saturday that it's too early for police to know a motive.

Omar Jamal, a Somali community advocate, said the woman's relatives said they didn't know who had shot her. He said her family and others told him that the couple were of Somali descent.

Elder and Jamal urged anyone with information about the slayings to contact police.

Tipsters, who can remain anonymous, are urged to call police at 612-673-2941 or 911. Anonymous calls can also be made to a tip line at 612-692-8477.

Jamal also expressed condolences to the families, and the Somali community in general, where he said word was spreading fast on Saturday.

"This is a very tense situation right now," he said.

Joy Powell • 612-673-7750

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Joy Powell, Star Tribune

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