A man who police say is a member of the Somali Outlaws gang, and who was charged last year with several counts of attempted murder and other violent crimes, recently received a plea bargain and concurrent sentencing that will leave him free in under three-and-a-half years.
Farhan Musse Ibrahim was charged in 2019 with four counts of second-degree attempted murder and other charges in two separate cases stemming from incidents in February of that year. Ibrahim was also charged with another violent crime in May of this year.
Alpha News previously reported on a series of related violent crimes in Minneapolis last year that court documents say involved Somali gangs. The court documents, which include cases involving Ibrahim, detail retaliation, shootings and murder.
FEBRUARY 10, 2019
In one case, Ibrahim was charged with three counts of second-degree attempted murder for an incident that occurred on Feb. 10, 2019. According to the criminal complaint in that case, just before 3 a.m. on that date, police were dispatched to a report of shots fired in the area of Hennepin Avenue South and West Franklin Avenue in south Minneapolis.
Upon arrival, police observed three occupants exit a minivan who were covered in broken glass. One of the victims told police that the shooters were members of the “Somali Outlawz” criminal street gang (aka Somali Outlaws gang). The victim said they were after him because he has friends and family who are associated with a rival gang, the “Six Rings.”
The victim told police that a maroon sedan pulled up next to the minivan he was in, which is when he heard a male voice say, “I think it’s them.” The victim said the backseat passenger of the sedan began firing shots at the minivan. The victim identified the shooter as Ibrahim to police, a person he said he was familiar with for a significant amount of time from high school. Another victim in the minivan said she was familiar with the shooter from his Instagram account under the name “Crazy 8,” a nickname used by Ibrahim on social media, the complaint stated.
FEBRUARY 19, 2019
In another incident that occurred on Feb. 19, 2019, Ibrahim was charged in an afternoon drive-by shooting in Cedar-Riverside that injured one person.
In that case, the criminal complaint states that just before 4 p.m., Ibrahim approached the victim who was standing on a street corner near the Cedar Cultural Center and fired several shots from inside a vehicle at the victim. The victim was struck several times in the back and torso and was left paralyzed, according to the criminal complaint.
In a subsequent statement to police, the victim said that Ibrahim, who went by the street name of “Crazy 8,” was mad at him for not supporting rappers from the Somali Outlawz gang, which included Ibrahim’s brother, referenced in the complaint as “FME.” The victim also told police that Ibrahim was angry about a recent shooting of another Somali Outlawz gang member.
Both Ibrahim and the Feb. 19 drive-by shooting were referenced in yet another case involving a March 1, 2019, gang-related murder of 17-year-old Abdiwasa Mohamed Farah and the shooting of several others inside a vehicle behind the Red Sea restaurant in Cedar-Riverside
Ibrahim is not charged in the murder of Farah, but he is identified in the criminal complaint as the brother of one of the defendants in the case, Abdilahi Muse Ibrahim, also known by the street name “FME.” The murder complaint also connects the gun used in the Feb. 19 drive-by shooting as one of two guns used in the murder of Farah, as evidenced by shell casings collected at both scenes that had matching forensic identifiers. The complaint further identifies Farhan Ibrahim as a “documented Somali Outlaw gang member.”
CHARGES
Following the Feb. 19 shooting, Farhan Ibrahim and co-defendant Ahmed Rashed Ahmed fled the state and were eventually apprehended in South Boston, Massachusetts, in May 2019.
Ibrahim was originally charged in the Feb. 10 case with three counts of second-degree attempted murder. In the Feb. 19 incident, Ibrahim was charged with one count of second-degree attempted murder involving a drive-by shooting and one count of second-degree assault.
In August 2019, Ibrahim posted bond and was released from custody. The “pandemic event” is referenced in April 2020 court records for both cases. At the time, most non-essential court proceedings were placed on hold across the state as a result of the governor’s peacetime emergency declaration due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
MAY 14, 2020
While still out on bond, another case filed in Hennepin County states that on May 14, 2020, Farhan Ibrahim tried to fire a gun at another man near the Karmel Mall in south Minneapolis.
Police were dispatched to the location on the 2900 block of Pillsbury Avenue South on a report of a person with a gun. Upon arrival, police spoke with the victim who told them a person he knew as Farhan Ibrahim, and also by the street name “Crazy 8,” approached him and they engaged in conversation.
At some point, the victim said Ibrahim reached into his jacket and pulled out a handgun, pointed it at the victim and pulled the trigger. The gun failed to fire, and the victim told officers he thought it jammed. The victim fled into a business in the mall and Ibrahim eventually fled after standing outside the business trying to coax the victim out.
Investigators later questioned the victim who told them he’d known Ibrahim since childhood, and they were close friends growing up. The victim stated that several years ago, Ibrahim had joined the Somali Outlaws gang and the victim did not. The criminal complaint described the Somali Outlaws gang as a violent criminal street gang known by law enforcement to meet the statutory definition of a gang in Minnesota.
The victim told investigators that he had recently come into possession of a large amount of money, and he believed that Ibrahim and other Somali Outlaws gang members were resentful that he had not joined the gang. He also believed that they were trying to extort money from him.
Ibrahim was charged in the case with one felony count of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was arrested on May 27, 2020, and remained in custody until sentencing with bail set at $1 million in the case.
PLEA BARGAIN AND SENTENCING
Court records reflect that a plea agreement was made with Ibrahim and that charges in the first two cases were amended, with some of the charges eventually being dismissed. The more recent May case was completely dismissed.
In the Feb. 10 case, the charges were amended from three counts of attempted murder to two counts of second-degree attempted murder, one count of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and one count of crime committed for the benefit of a gang. Ibrahim eventually pled guilty to only the second-degree assault charge and the other three charges were dismissed.
The court record in the Feb. 19 drive-by shooting case documents a plea agreement, and shows the attempted murder charge was amended to one count of first-degree assault involving great bodily harm, to which Ibrahim pled guilty.
Ibrahim, now 21, was sentenced to 36 months and 74 months in prison, respectively, on the two counts he pled guilty to in the 2019 cases.
The two sentences were ordered to be served concurrently and Ibrahim was given credit for 236 days already spent in jail. Under Minnesota law, offenders are only required to serve two-thirds of their sentence incarcerated and the remainder on supervised release. Ibrahim is scheduled for release from prison in just under three-and-a-half years in March 2024. All three cases were presided over by Judge Martha Anne Holton Dimick.
An email was sent to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office inquiring about the plea bargain and the amended and dismissed charges for a known gang member. Media coordinator Lacey Severins provided the following reply:
“Prosecutors involved in these cases worked to secure the best guilty plea to the most substantive charges they could based on available evidence they had as trials neared. We are unwilling to go into detail about how we had less evidence than when prosecutors first charged Mr. Ibrahim. However, often times in gang-related cases, victims and witnesses recant their original statements to police, they flee and become unlocatable, or in other ways, become uncooperative. In some cases, the witness is killed before trial.”
The second-degree attempted murder charge against co-defendant Ahmed Rashed Ahmed in the Feb. 19, 2019, drive-by shooting was dismissed in September.
The two defendants in the gang-related Red Sea murder and shooting case, Abdilahi Muse Ibrahim and Omar Nur Hassan, are both scheduled for jury trials in January.
In that case, both defendants were each indicted on six counts related to premeditated first-degree murder or attempt to commit first-degree murder, and both are also charged with six counts related to second-degree murder or attempt to commit second-degree murder. Both suspects are being held in Hennepin County Jail on bail amounts of $1 million.
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Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
Crime Watch MN
Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
