Man charged in Minneapolis killing of woman holding 2-year-old son; child survived gunshot to face

A Savage man with a history of violence allegedly shot and killed a Minneapolis woman who was holding her 2-year-old son, and shot the boy in the face while two other children were in the backseat and their father was outside the car.

Ayale Abdullahi Ali, 20, was charged in Hennepin County District Court Wednesday with five counts of second-degree murder in the death of Lilian M. Polacin Perez, 35, of Minneapolis, and the attempted killing of her three children and their father in May.

Ali is not in custody and a nationwide warrant has been issued for his arrest.

In a statement after charges were filed, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said, “These charges are the result of intense work by MPD that never wavered once 911 was called. The death of a mother who was holding her child when both were shot is especially troubling and this senseless crime impacted the family, the community, the responding officers, and the investigators.”

According to court and police records:

Minneapolis police were called to an alley on the 2900 block of 18th Avenue S. in Minneapolis on May 19 and found five victims. Perez was holding her son and both were seriously injured.

Polacin Perez then drove about 1¼ miles to Children’s Minnesota Hospital in Minneapolis while both were suffering from “potentially life-threatening gunshot wounds,” a police statement read. Polacin Perez was later transferred to HCMC where she died three days later.

Two other children were in the backseat of the car but were not hit. The father of the children had driven to the house to borrow tools from his brother. No motive was named in the shooting.

Polacin Perez’s brother-in-law, Jamie Chachipanta, told the Star Tribune after the shooting that the boy is named Suriel, and doctors told him the boy was “going to be OK.”

Surveillance video showed that when the father got out of the car, Ali approached from behind in another car. He got out of the passenger door and approached the vehicle and fired multiple shots inside. When the father came back to the car, he saw Polacin Perez and his son were shot and began screaming. That’s when Ali shot at the father, but missed.

Police recovered seven shell casings from a 9mm and a crime lab determined they all came from the same gun.

Multiple witnesses put Ali at the scene as the shooter. Police gained access to his social media accounts and saw Ali in several photos posing with guns and also located a message where he discussed trading weapons with someone else 24 hours after the murder. Police used cell phone location data to place Ali at the scene of the crime when the shooting happened.

Police then gave witnesses photo lineups that contained Ali and two witnesses identified him as the shooter.

Ali is on probation in Scott County after pleading guilty to aggravated robbery in 2022. In that case, Ali and an accomplice pulled out a pistol and robbed three men of their cell phones at a bus stop in Savage in 2019. Ali was 15 at the time of the robbery and after pleading guilty he received no prison time and was placed on supervised probation for five years.

He had also been charged with home invasion and attempted murder in Iowa, though those cases were dismissed. He pleaded guilty to two counts of misdemeanor assault in Iowa in 2023. Minneapolis police also recovered communications where Ali “brags about fleeing to Somalia” after criminal charges.

Because of the flight risk, the state is seeking $2 million bail in the case and will seek an aggravated sentence because the murder happened in front of children.

Staff writer Paul Walsh contributed to this story.