Suspect in Minneapolis vehicular homicide arrested as he tries to flee country

A suspect in a vehicular homicide in Minneapolis was arrested Aug. 28 at Washington Dulles International Airport as he tried to board a flight to Turkey, authorities said Friday.

Said Sharif Maye, 34, of Minneapolis, was wanted in the Aug. 24 death of Idris Ali Yussuf, 31, of Brooklyn Park, who died after being intentionally struck by a vehicle driven by Maye, according to vehicular homicide charges filed in Hennepin County District Court.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers arrested Maye four days after Yussuf's death after detecting the arrest warrant for Maye while examining the passenger manifest on the D.C. flight headed to Turkey, the agency said in a news release. Officers arrested Maye at the departure gate. His final destination was to have been Somalia, the agency said.

According to the charges against Maye, officers were called to the intersection of Franklin and Lyndale avenues just before 2:30 a.m. Aug. 24 on a report of a hit and run and found Yussuf gravely injured. He was taken to HCMC, where he died just after noon the next day of craniocerebral injuries, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office.

A witness told officers that Maye had been at a bar with Yussuf and the witness earlier that night and gotten into a dispute. After they left the bar, the witness saw Maye's vehicle hit Yussuf as Yussuf tried to get into his own vehicle, pinning him against it. The witness told police that Maye had crossed into the opposite lane to hit Yussuf and that the crash appeared to be intentional.

The suspect vehicle was found later with damage consistent with the witness' report, as well as with an anonymous tip about Maye's involvement and credit card information from the bar.

Maye will be returned to Hennepin County, where the county attorney has said that a charge of second-degree murder will be added against him if the case proceeds to trial.