Charges filed in drive-by shooting outside Burnsville High School graduation

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Charges were filed Monday after gunshots were fired outside the Burnsville High School graduation on Friday night.

No one was injured.

The Dakota County Attorney’s Office said in criminal complaints:

Abdulahi Jama Ali (Courtesy of the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office)

Officers were working security and crowd control outside the high school. They were aware that two groups of people “were arguing and flashing gang signs towards each other as officers were attempting to disperse the groups. Officers also broke up several physical altercations between the groups that evening.”

At about 8:30 p.m., officers heard gunshots coming from the west side of the school. Bystanders directed them to a Toyota Camry, and officers detained the driver and front-seat passenger.

The driver was identified as Abdikani Mukhtar Abdiwahab, 18, of Bloomington, and the passenger as Abdulahi Jama Ali, 18, of Shakopee.

A bystander was heard saying, “Ksoe, you missed. You dumb (expletive).” Officers learned Ali’s nickname is “Ksoe.” The bystander was wearing a leopard print or camo jacket.

Witnesses reported the Camry’s driver was driving recklessly and almost hit another vehicle. They saw a person in a leopard print jacket approach the Camry’s passenger side, talk with the occupants and try to punch the Camry with his fist.

A barrel of a gun then came out the front passenger window and someone opened fire.

Officers found a handgun with an extended magazine under the front passenger seat and a bullet casing on the driver’s side floorboard. They also found two bullet casings on the street and a parked vehicle with a bullet fragment in the driver’s side headlight.

Abdikani Mukhtar Abdiwahab (Courtesy of the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office)

Abdiwahab later told officers he hadn’t fired a gun and said his DNA wouldn’t be found on the gun taken from the Camry.

DNA swabs were taken from the handgun and from Ali, after police obtained a search warrant, and are pending analysis at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Abdiwahab is charged with two counts each of aiding and abetting a drive-by shooting and aiding an offender. Ali is charged with second-degree assault and two counts of drive-by shooting. Both are jailed.

Two other people were arrested in the incident. It wasn’t immediately clear if they would be charged Monday.

The Friday before Burnsville’s graduation, two people were injured in a shooting outside Mariucci Arena at the University of Minnesota after the Wayzata High School graduation ceremony. A 20-year-old from Coon Rapids is charged in that case.

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