Police use DNA, Snapchat to link Minneapolis man to unsolved 2017 kidnapping, rape

DNA testing has linked a Minneapolis man already awaiting trial on sexual-assault charges to another 2017 case where a 15-year-old was abducted and raped at gunpoint. In both cases, the suspect allegedly used Snapchat to give his victims car rides then threatened to kill them before raping them.

Abdimahat Bille Mohamed, 27, was arrested on May 30 after he allegedly threatened to kill a woman and her sister if she didn’t have sex with him in his Minneapolis apartment. Mohamed argues that the sex was consensual but investigators swabbed the inside of his cheek for DNA. That testing linked Mohamed to the kidnapping and rape of 15-year-old girl at gunpoint by three men in south Minneapolis in 2017.

Mohamed is set to go to trial next week in the case from May. He faces four felony counts of criminal sexual conduct in that case along with two felony counts of assault against a peace officer.

The 2017 case was charged last week and Mohamed faces four felony counts of criminal sexual conduct and one count of felony kidnapping.

Mohamed’s attorney, Bryan Leary of the Hennepin County Public Defender’s Office, said, “In all the hype and hoopla of leveling new charges, let’s remember that Mr. Mohamed is innocent and innocence is a fragile thing easily crushed by way of suspicion.”

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office did not immediately return a request for comment on the new charges against Mohamed. His criminal history in Minnesota is largely traffic-related and he has no other felony convictions or charges.

According to the criminal charges and court documents:

In December 2017, a 15-year-old girl arranged for a ride with an adult man she knew through Snapchat. The girl was planning to pay for the ride from St. Paul to Minneapolis when the driver pulled over at a house the girl didn’t know and said he had to “get something from his place.”

The girl tried to exit the car, but the child locks were engaged. Two unknown men climbed into the car. One man pulled out a revolver, pointed it at the girl and told her to perform oral sex on his brother or he would “blow her head off.” The girl performed the act without consent, then Mohamed, who was 20 years old at the time, got into the backseat and raped her.

Mohamed then climbed into the front seat and drove the car two blocks before dropping the girl off. She ran and hid before calling police from a TCF Bank on Lake Street in Minneapolis. She was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center for a sexual-assault exam and told investigators all the sexual activity was done out of fear because of the man holding a gun on her.

No one was charged in the case for nearly seven years. The two suspects who entered the car, including the man with the gun, remain unknown.

On May 30 of this year, police were dispatched to an apartment building on Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis after a woman reported her sister was being raped.

The two sisters had been picked up by Mohamed, whom they knew through Snapchat, and brought to his apartment. Once they got there, Mohamed threatened to shoot them both if one of the women didn’t have sex with him. He brought the victim into his bedroom while the other sister stayed in the living room. Mohamed turned the volume up on the television but loud arguments were heard coming from the bedroom so the sister went to check on what was happening. She opened the door and saw Mohamed on top of her sister with his pants down. Mohamed told her to shut the door or he was going to kill her. She ran from the apartment and called 911.

The woman met officers outside and told them her sister was inside with Mohamed. A paramedic spoke with the victim who said she had been raped and choked. She was taken for a sexual-assault exam. Mohamed was taken to have his DNA collected. He became increasingly violent with police and hospital staff, spitting at them repeatedly and with such aggression that hospital staff couldn’t complete the test despite Mohamed being restrained. He was placed in a squad car and hit a police officer on the back of the head.

Eventually the test was completed.

DNA from that test linked to swabs taken from the alleged 15-year-old rape victim from 2017 was close to a 100% match on Mohamed. On Friday, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty filed a motion in the case that the state will seek an upward departure from sentencing guidelines because of the number of instances and forms of penetration, the number of accomplices, the age of the victim, the emotional or psychological harm to the victim and the fact that the charges involve a kidnapping.