Adnan Abdullahi Abdi initially lied to police and said his 19-year-old friend Omar Noor Nunow died by suicide at his St. Paul apartment on April 1. Later, when pressed by investigators, Abdi said he pointed a gun at Nunow to “scare” him and pulled the trigger, not knowing it was loaded, court documents say.
On Tuesday, Abdi was given a downward departure from state guidelines and sentenced to three months in the Ramsey County workhouse and five years of supervised probation after previously pleading guilty to second-degree manslaughter for causing Nunow’s death “by culpable negligence which created an unreasonable risk.”
Adnan Abdullahi Abdi (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)
Abdi, 18, of St. Paul, had entered a straight plea to the charge, meaning there was no agreement between the defense and the prosecution on the terms of his sentence.
Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Cory Tennison asked Judge Adam Yang to impose a four-year prison term, which would have fallen in the middle of sentencing guidelines. Tennison called the case a difficult one and said that while Nunow’s father supported probation for Abdi, “I can’t join in that.”
“This was very dangerous conduct. While not intentional, it obviously led to a death,” Tennison added. “This is presumptive prison because the conduct was egregious.”
Yang stayed execution of a four-year prison term as part of the downward dispositional departure requested by Abdi’s attorney, Eric Nelson.
Abdi can serve the 90-day workhouse sentence on electronic home monitoring, and will receive four days of custody credit.
Yang ordered Abdi to complete 80 hours community service and write an apology letter to Nunow’s father. Restitution was left open for 90 days.
He told him, ‘Freeze,’ then fired
According to the criminal complaint, officers responded to the Merriam Park apartment building at Marshall and Prior avenues at 2 p.m. April 1 after Abdi reported that Nunow shot himself. They found Nunow dead in a bedroom and one spent shell casing on the floor. A handgun was in a cabinet by a bed.
Abdi told officers that Nunow was his friend from school and he spent the night at his apartment. He said he woke to the sound of a single gunshot and saw Nunow falling to the ground. He checked to see if Nunow was breathing, picked up the gun and put it in the cabinet. He said he moved it because he didn’t want to shoot himself.
A 25-year-old man, who Abdi said was Nunow’s uncle and stayed at the apartment, told police that when Nunow’s father is away, Nunow had friends over. He said he had seen Nunow and his friends with guns, and heard them playing with the weapons and talking about pointing the guns at each other, the complaint said.
At police headquarters, investigators told Abdi “that certain aspects of his initial account did not make sense” and asked if gunshot residue testing would show that he’d fired the gun, the complaint said. He “eventually admitted that he had shot (Nunow) by accident.”
Abdi said he’d been sleeping, woke up, and he and Nunow did some online classes. He said he grabbed the gun, pointed it at Nunow and told him, “Freeze,” the complaint said. He said he was lying on his side on the bed when he pointed the gun at Nunow. He pulled the trigger, not realizing it was loaded. The gun fired and Nunow fell to the floor. An autopsy determined the shot was not fired from close range.
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