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Somali immigrant
community mourns member killed in weekend crash with driver
of stolen car
(Minneapolis,
April 08,
2008 Ceegaag Online)
A day after the crash that
killed Hanna Abukar on a busy South Minneapolis street,
friends gathered on the evening of her funeral to talk about
the Somali immigrant who held her traditions close and wore
her kindness on her sleeve.
"Always she was talking
about the children — and she died with the children," said
Abdulkadir Afrah, a family friend of the Minneapolis woman
killed while driving her 6-year-old son and another child to
Sunday school.
Abukar, 26, died Sunday
when a 15-year-old boy allegedly smashed a stolen car into
her vehicle while fleeing police. She was taking her son,
Mohamed, and a neighbor's child to the Umutul Muhamed Center
in Minneapolis.
Mohamed remained in
critical condition with head injuries and a broken leg
Monday in Hennepin County Medical Center, according to
family. The second child, who was not identified, was also
in the hospital but was not critically injured, family
friends said.
Of Abukar's family —
particularly her husband, Osman — "they're still crying,"
said Mohamud Isse, who grew up with the couple in Mogadishu,
Somalia. "They won't come out."
Abukar and her husband were
married in Somalia and came to the United States from their
war-ravaged East African homeland about seven years ago,
Isse said. They had one other child, a 3-year-old girl named
Samira who is staying with her grandmother while the
community mourns.
Many members of the Somali
community in South Minneapolis stressed Monday that
Abukar was a "good mother,"
a "good woman" and a "good friend."
"She would always feel
sorry when you would tell her something about your life,"
Afrah said. "She was so kind."
On the morning of the
crash, Osman Abukar had just returned from a nearby factory
where he worked and was too tired to drive Mohamed to Sunday
school, so he asked his wife to go, Isse said.
"At first, we didn't know
what killed her, how she died," said Isse, who received a
call from the woman's husband soon after the crash. "When we
learned, we were so sad. He (Osman) still cannot speak."
Police had been chasing the
driver of the stolen car before he crashed into Abukar's car
at Lake Street and Stevens Avenue. Police said that because
of concerns for public safety, they had called off the chase
at Lake Street and Chicago Avenue, a half-mile before the
site of the accident.
The boy, whose identity was
not released because he is a juvenile, ran from the crash
scene into a nearby Kmart, where he was arrested. He was in
custody Monday but had yet to be charged.
Minneapolis police officers
involved in the chase and arrest included Thomas Mack, a
12-year veteran of the force; Jonathan Petron, a nine-year
veteran; and Eric Shogren, a 12-year veteran. All were
placed on paid administrative leave while an investigation
takes place.
Hanna Abukar's funeral was
Monday in Burnsville.
Tad Vezner can be reached
at 651-228-5461.
Source: TwinCities
webmaster@ceegaag.com |
