General Asad
And What Is Not There Is Always More Than There.
MADISON, Wis. — A Minnesota man of Somali descent who was convicted of opening fire on other Somalis will get a new trial after a detective improperly testified that Somalis often lie to police, a Wisconsin appeals court ruled Tuesday.
Ahmed Farah Hirsi was charged with multiple counts of attempted homicide and recklessly endangering safety in the January 2014 car-to-car shooting at the Spirit Seller liquor store in Hudson, Wisconsin, just across the state line from the Twin Cities. A jury convicted Hirsi in 2015 and he was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
According to court documents, the driver of Hirsi’s car testified in a plea deal that Hirsi pulled the trigger. But the victims who testified at trial said they either didn’t see the shooter or that it wasn’t Hirsi. The driver of the victims’ car testified that he told police that the man who shot him was still out there.
Prosecutors called Tracy Henry, a detective from St. Paul, Minnesota, to the stand. Minnesota has the largest concentration of Somalis in America.
Henry testified that in her experience Somalis don’t trust police and prefer to handle disputes themselves. She added that Somali crime victims and witnesses tend to “fabricate” events to avoid retribution within their clans.
Ahmed Farah Hirsi was charged with multiple counts of attempted homicide and recklessly endangering safety in the January 2014 car-to-car shooting at the Spirit Seller liquor store in Hudson, Wisconsin, just across the state line from the Twin Cities. A jury convicted Hirsi in 2015 and he was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
According to court documents, the driver of Hirsi’s car testified in a plea deal that Hirsi pulled the trigger. But the victims who testified at trial said they either didn’t see the shooter or that it wasn’t Hirsi. The driver of the victims’ car testified that he told police that the man who shot him was still out there.
Prosecutors called Tracy Henry, a detective from St. Paul, Minnesota, to the stand. Minnesota has the largest concentration of Somalis in America.
Henry testified that in her experience Somalis don’t trust police and prefer to handle disputes themselves. She added that Somali crime victims and witnesses tend to “fabricate” events to avoid retribution within their clans.
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