By Keith L. Alexander | The Washington Posts
Friends and family of Ali Ahmed Mohammed gathered outside the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District on Monday to protest prosecutors’ decision to drop charges against the five men accused of beating Mohammed outside DC9, a popular nightclub.
Mohammed, 27, of Silver Spring, died later at a hospital. Authorities say the District’s medical examiner’s office has not found injuries consistent with a brutal beating.
The men, initially charged with murder, had been scheduled to appear in court today for a preliminary hearing on aggravated assault charges.
Mohammed’s mother, Sashie Bule, carried a sign that read “We want justice now” The sign also had Mohammed’s picture on it. Bule said her son “deserved justice.”
“I need answers,” she said. “I want to know what happened to my son. He didn’t deserve this.”
Police say Mohammed had been denied admission to the club and later came back after closing and threw bricks through the window. Authorities said the five men, who were employees of the club, chased Mohammed, held him down and punched and kicked him.
Mohammed, an Ethiopian immigrant, had worked as a security guard and sandwich maker at a local deli.
Protesters also chanted “Where is the justice America?”
Nunu Waco, Mohammed’s cousin, said her family was “appalled” by the decision by prosecutors to drop the charges.
“Our family deserves better. American citizens deserve better,” she said.
On Friday, when the charges were dropped, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. said in a statement that his office needed more information, including a final conclusion by the medical examiner, before moving forward. He said the investigation would continue.
“Our work is not done,” Machen said. “The tragic death of Ali Ahmed Mohammed demands that we undertake a careful and comprehensive investigation to determine precisely how he died. . . . The search for justice cannot be rushed, and we will continue to pursue an active and vigorous inquiry.”
Inside the office of 555 4th St. NW, employees were seen gathered at the windows of their offices looking out at the protesters. Some employees, lowered the blinds. After the 45-minute demonstration, the protesters marched to the Justice Department to hold a similar protest.
17 thoughts on “Ali Mohammed family appalled by U.S. Attorney’s decision”
I don’t know how they come up with this low numbers i tought there were to many people.And the blood story on this articl makes me wonder if Ali broke the window at all , take a look http://www.tbd.com/blogs/tbd-neighborhoods/2010/11/photo-of-bloody-sidewalk-is-not-ali-ahmed-mohammed-s-blood-4394.html
Hmmm… Appears just like the 1950s
Kuklux clan deadly lynchings and getting away with their horrendous inhuman crimes against humanity. What a shame!
“The trouble with the laws these days is that criminals know their rights better than their wrongs.” ~Unknown author has to say.
The cold blooded murder of Ali is also a cold blooded murder of our human spirit. The reckless dismissal of the murderers and letting them go free by the visibly partial court amounts to a psychological double murder of our human spirits and as such needs to be rejected and challenged.
We want the good USA to be the land of the free, the land of the brave as well as the land of JUSTICE FOR ALL.
Folks: we need to actively network and involve peoples of all colors, religions, ethnicity and beyond. Let us not make it appear only as a narrow chauvinist agenda alone.
We should not give in to naked tyranny that is trying to tyrannize our lives down the line!
“Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.” ~Edmund Burke
‘Sew keAgeru siriq, qenum chelema new’ goes a song by one my favourite Ethiopian singers. I hope Ethiopians in DC see justice through. May Mohammed’s soul rest in peace and may his family and friends have strength.
Peace
Tesfa
What is truly “Trajic” about this story..everyone is shouting justice..but was their one witness that can speak for this guy..Lets us remember, this man started this by throwing a Brick into the business…He chose his destiny and the Ethiopian protesters want justice..very funny..2 wrongs don’t make a right..Its the law..innocent until proven guilty..not the other way around!! Like the man said..Its the Law!!
The fact is Bill Spieler, Evan Preller, Arthur Zaloga, Reginald Phillips, and Darryl Carter have attacked brutally and fatally a man who was under the influence of alchohol. This people should have known better because they are in the business of getting people drunk, and not selling holy water. That is why the police are needed, to take care of issues like this. This is not the wild west where vigilante justice is the way. It is unfortunate that these five guys fall for Ali’s drunk judgement. Ali isn’t innocent. If he was alive, probably he would have been taken to jail. But in 2010 here in the great capital of the U.S.A, which is the seat of the president, senate, congress and the supreme court, is unbelievable to see or here what this five guys did. Specially, with the type of connection and money these people got, one would expect certain level of decency. Probably, they may believe that they can influence the law because of a wrong perception that Ali is a poor foreigner, they should be rest assured that they will face justice appropriately because they did it in the wrong place. What worst could we expect from Taliban or Alkaeda. In my view what this people did, amounts to terrorism. Terrorizing a community so that this would never happen again. Lets give them a lesson kinda. What I know about five guys is cracking peanuts and eating juicy burger. Just to keep the good name of five guys burger joint, lets call them five coward animals.
We expect the law to protect the people. If not, well we must protect ourselves from these kind of killers. I know we can do that.
#4.Girma Asmelash,
Your types have even sold Jesus Christ for some 30 dollars. Shame of you spineless satan!
Didn’t you hear eyewitness accounts and the accounts of the police based on the eye witness reports? Dumb like a garden tool.
What the hell would you have said from behind the grave if it would have happened to you? What would your family and friends have said? “Yes it is good that Girma Asmelash is slaughtered. He desrved it?”
I agree they should be taken as terrorists in the open air.
Girma Asmelash
Please go to hell!!! You may be one woyane who is used to vigilante justice.
I am Proud of all the Ethiopians who participated in one way or the other in demanding for Justice for Ali Mohammed. We are Ethiopians and we need to watch over each others back. Justice for ALI is Justice for all of us. If this animals are set free today, be sure they will come for you tomorrow. If they are convicted of their hateful and barbaric crime today, it will be a worning to all who take the law of this land into their hand. Justice delaid is Justice denied. May God bless Ethiopia and Ethiopians for ever.
A network of people are working hard to intimidate and discredit the DC police chief because she said it was a “vigilane justice”. Ali was mudered by savage animals and they are not only denying it and using their connections but they are trying to intimidate the police and influence the outcome. A wish washy politician, Council man Jim Graham, who pretends to like Ethiopians had at first defended the criminals and later he denied he did. We have found out that he is one of the people who is working hard to intimidate the police chief. What ever and who ever, we Ethiopians have to keep our relentless effort to stop this activities and we have to keep networking on this particular issue. We have to show them that when they touch one us we will stand together. That way next time they try to do something like that they will think twice. Ali’s killers have to pay for what they did. Specially in a land of law that is possible. They can’t just kill our spirit. Ladys and gentlemen, this is very critical. This is self respecting. It could be anyone us. Lets keep the contribution in any way we can.
kassahun how do you know Ali was drunk? It is bad enough that he was brutally killed and missed by his family but now you are justifying his wrong doing.Some one wrote those five guys are innocent til proven guilty,well please let us wait and see.By the way there is a report that another man was involved in breaking the window of DC9 club just an hour earlier how about that? read here http://www.tbd.com/blogs/tbd-neighborhoods/2010/11/photo-of-bloody-sidewalk-is-not-ali-ahmed-mohammed-s-blood-4394.html
#10 tezibt,
Thank you very much for you GOLDEN views. The world needs people like you!
This is not about Ali alone. It is about us all, about our humanity, about our dignity, as individuals and communities.
It is also about our children and their children down the line.
We either get together in order to directly and indirectly challenge this kind of intimidating reckless brutalities and injustices and make the world and the streets secure and peaceful for us all or get divided, passive and let the world, our streets and our homes be taken over by violent murderers who are bent on denying us and our children down the line even the basic human securities and the essential rule of law and justice.
“A person who doubts himself is like a man who enlists in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself. He makes his failure certain by himself being the first person to be convinced of it.” Alexander Dumas
We need to proactively network, lobby, invest our financial, social, intellectual,etc. resources and bring together all human rights defenders from near and far and defeat manipulative structural racist mafia injustice with transparent democratic justice. That is our right and we need to use it! Standing together right to the end is of great value.
“All for one and one for all.” Dumas again.
By the way, the world famous and enchanting Alexander Dumas((1802 – 1870) was a son of a french noble man and an African mother who rose from the ashes to the tops of all things.
Yes we too can make it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Dumas,_p%C3%A8re
#4,
Typical Woyane! Insensitive barbaric people like yourself have no value for human life. You have proven yourself to be a shameless cold-blooded, unsympathetic, inhumane creature. No life should be destroyed for a broken window that can always be replaced. It is because of despicable people like yourself why our hundreds and thousands of Ethiopian brothers and sisters are loosing their lives and countless number of Ethiopians still rotting in jail as we speak in Ethiopia.
Injustice is a day to day life. We all deprive others right to live by denying them respect and love at every moment. How many of you do you really are fair? or are you demanding what you don’t really give for others. I don’t see his death as special. Every second people are dying in a way they don’t deserve.
I am sorry he died but he could also have killed someone when he threw them bricks. Anyways just wait for the medical result to understand why he really died. It is one these, vigilante justice, other internal health problem, drug abuse, binge drinking or …
This is pure unjustice to everyone specialy to immigrants they have done it they used to do it in old days to thier own b people ,in America they know how to interfer in other countries and blame others for injustice but in thier own country so much shit going on specialy to iligal immigrants if you want to know the fact ask mexicans.I belive Ali is a victim of religious discrimnation.
I applaud, admire and respect our (Ethiopians’) demand for justice. In my opinion, the realities here in the USA are such that we must continue with our effort until justice prevails for Ali Mohammed’s family.
At the same time, however, we should also be alarmed by some of the acts/crimes that have been reportedly committed by some Ethiopians in the USA. Certainly, these are acts that I had never thought an Ethiopian would commit (especially abroad). They reflect the continued decrease of sense of right and wrong in Ethiopia, (a decrease that that the government itself has been promoting for years).
Such a two winged effort has a better chance of preventing further victimization of Ethiopians from taking place than any one-winged effort has.
I extend my condolences to Ali Mohammed’s family, and my gratitude to every concerned Ethiopian.