Prosecutors have charged a man police believe intentionally ran down a Somali teenager in Kansas City, killing him, in a crash that the FBI is investigating as a possible hate crime.
Ahmed Aden, 34, was charged Friday with first-degree murder, armed criminal action, leaving the scene of an accident and unlawful use of a weapon, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said.
Abdisamad Sheikh-Hussein, 15, was killed and another teen was injured when Aden allegedly intentionally rammed his Chevy Blazer into Hussein as he was getting into a car outside a mosque and Somali community center on Thursday evening, the prosecutor’s office and police said. The crash was so violent that Abdisamad’s legs were nearly severed, and he died later that day.
Aden allegedly ran from the scene of the crash while holding a machete and pointing a handgun at people in the area, and was arrested by police, authorities said.
The FBI said Friday that it has initiated a civil rights investigation into Abdisamad’s death. Aden at first told police he lost control of the SUV, but later said he was looking for a group of people who had threatened to kill him, and mistook the 15-year-old for a member of that group, the prosecutor’s office said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.