(Examiner) — Police say a 46-year-old man is in custody in the weekend fatal shooting of a convenience store clerk in south Denver.
Dale Wayne Baylis was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder Wednesday evening outside his home. He is suspected of killing 28-year-old Natnael Mulugeta, an immigrant from Ethiopia.
The shooting happened at about 3:30 a.m. Saturday at a 7-Eleven store near Baylis’ home. Officers say they arrived to find the store empty. They later found Mulugeta in a nearby alley with a gunshot wound to his chest.
Mulugeta was taken to a hospital, where he died about two hours later.
Friends, Family Remember Natnael
DENVER (CBS4) — Denver police say they’re following up on tips that could help solve the murder of a 7-Eleven clerk over the weekend.
Friends and family remembered 27-year-old Natnael Mulugeta Wednesday. He was an immigrant from Ethiopia.
Mulugeta and his younger sister came to Colorado to work and study. He was a clerk at the 7-Eleven located at 567 East Louisiana in Denver. His sister is a full-time college student. She is smart, articulate, but was unable to speak of the brother she adored Wednesday afternoon.
There is a language barrier, but the tears spoke clearly about the loss of a young man called “Natchee.”
“He was a wonderful young man, very quiet, very polite and loving,” family friend Yen Kebede said.
The small, tight community of Ethiopians has a single question — why?
“He hasn’t done anything wrong, so somebody or someone did him wrong,” Kebede said.
This week Natchee’s sister will take his body back to Ethiopia, to their parents. Because of Ethiopian tradition, the parents have not yet been told of Natchee’s death — not until the body arrives back in their country.
The Ethiopians aren’t bitter about what happened in their adopted homeland. They are grateful to a community that has adopted them. The horror, they say, will be buried Wednesday, so they can focus on living.
Denver police say there was a surveillance camera at the time of the shooting. Police have not released any video.
Additional Resources
The local Ethiopian community is setting up a fund to help the sister of murder victim Natnael Mulugeta. CBS4 is donating $1,000 as part of the Pay It Forward program. You can make donations at any Wells Fargo bank. Mention Natnael Mulugeta’s name as the fund.
Sister of murdered 7-Eleven clerk talks; suspect in court
DENVER (9News.com) – The sister of Natnael Mulugeta says she takes comfort in the fact that police arrested a suspect in her brother’s murder.
“My brother was just everything to me, he was my only brother too,” said Belen Mulugeta. “We were very close.”
“I hope we will get justice,” Mulugeta told 9Wants to Know.
A judge ordered Dale Wayne Baylis, 46, to be held without bond when Baylis appeared in Denver County Court Thursday. Baylis is being held on a first degree murder complaint.
Natnael Mulugeta, a 27-year-old Ethiopian immigrant, died after being shot by a rifle at about 3:30 a.m. Saturday while working alone at the convenience store at Louisiana Avenue and Pearl Street. He managed to crawl to the alley and call for help. That’s where police found him.
He was rushed to Denver Health Medical Center where he died about two hours later.
Mulugeta and her brother moved to the United States in 1999, she told 9NEWS.
“Myself and my family are very, very glad that they did arrest a suspect and we hope that it is the right person,” Belen Mulugeta said.
“Even if it wasn’t my brother, a person like that should not be walking on the street,” she said.
Belen Mulugeta boarded a flight from Denver to Washington, DC with her brother’s body Thursday afternoon. She then planned to fly to Ethiopia.
Police say they did not use surveillance video in identifying the suspect. Immediately after the shooting, investigators say they conducted interviews and were able to develop leads.
This isn’t Baylis’ first encounter with authorities. In 2003, he was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. According to a report from the Rocky Mountain News archives, Baylis stabbed a woman in Arapahoe County. He was eventually charged and convicted of assault with a deadly weapon. The report says his mental competency was an issue in that case.
Police set up surveillance outside Baylis’ home at 1308 S. Logan Street on Wednesday before making the arrest. Baylis was injured by police dogs during the arrest.
7-Eleven spokeswoman Margaret Chabris says Mulugeta had worked at the store for five years.
On Wednesday, Mulugeta’s family held a funeral service at an Aurora church.
NAIROBI– Kenyan Police arrested 32 Ethiopians, among them two terror suspects, in a house at Nairobi’s Umoja Estate.
The operation by anti-terror police unit is believed to be a breakthrough in their investigation.
Head of anti-terror police Nicholas Kamwende confirmed the arrests, but declined to give more details.
He said they were investigating various crimes, which led to the raids. Witnesses said contingents of police surrounded the building where the foreigners were arrested before the officers stormed in and ordered them out one by one.
The officers left with two of the suspects, but left the rest behind. It was not immediately clear why they decided to go with the two, but sources said they were terror suspects.
The Ethiopians arrived in groups of five and stayed in a rental house in the estate for more than a week before the police raid.
They told police they planned to travel to South Africa at a date only known by their leaders.
The 30 suspects were expected in court yesterday to face charges of being in the country illegally. Police said they are looking for a Kenyan who had allowed the foreigners to stay in his house illegally.
The involvement of anti-terror police has raised suspicion of the foreigners’ mission here.
Porous borders between Kenya and her Ethiopian and Somali neighbours have led to infiltration of terrorists blamed for the 1998 US Embassy and 2002 Kikambala Paradise Hotel bombings.
Meles Zenawi’s dictatorship in Ethiopia attacks the United States Department of States officials as liars for publishing a report that exposes the regime’s massive human rights violations.
In a statement issued yesterday, the Meles regime said that normally they do not respond to such reports, but in this case they have to protect Ethiopia’s name!
The TV reporter who read the statement must be a skilled actor because he was not laughing as you can see in the video below.
The ongoing melodrama that is unfolding in the Ethiopian army and security machinery, albeit in fits and starts, is another devastating and fatal crack in the inner walls of the Meles-Bereket tyranny. The staggering effect of the plot has sent the shaken Meles-Bereket clique running in all directions trying to limit the damage of the plot to the conventional “fringe” elements in the army in terms of commanding actual and effective power. The dripping of name of participants and withholding of their identities is intended to show that those behind the plot are non-Tigreans (largely Amharas and Oromos) in the army.
The fact that real power in the military and security machinery is held by Tigreans makes it improbable to topple the Meles-Bereket clique from within the government system. But what comes as a blow is the information that is was circulating in the security machinery which reveals that a Tigrean military officer General Tadesse Worede and a handful of mid- and low-level Tigrean officers are at the center of the plot to topple the clique. This reality is a devastating phenomenon for the regime as it has fatal reverberations on the viability of the EPRDF political system.
Most of all, with the support for the TPLF eroding and budding of an all Tigrean opposition factions inside and outside the TPLF, this event ushers in a new chapter dealing a blow that damagingly cracks the inner walls of the decaying the Meles-Bereket clique. The ballooning of the repressive machinery built by Meles has come to a point where he himself has become unable to reign in control to all tentacles and outgrowths of the system.
With regard to the security machinery, the wavering loyalty to the clique is astonishing. This is a terrifying fact as the information of the plot primarily came to the attention of the Meles-Bereket clique, not from the security apparatus of the government, but from foreigners like Israelis and others in the region. While the conspiracy to neutralize the Meles-Bereket clique was thickening, a significant portion of the security machinery, which is fed up with the unpredictable and unpopular rule of Meles, was silently nodding, or at least giving a blind eye, to the successful execution of the plot. Information from sources argues that the outing of the plot was mainly the result of the plotters’ overconfidence in success.
Even from the carefully choreographed message that is being painted by the Meles-Bereket clique on the plot (which keeps to be upgraded and rebooted by the minute), it is not hard to discern the extent of disorientation and confusion that has plagued the inner core of the TPLF/EPRDF. The way the story is being changed, the concealing of the plotters’ identities, the unfolding drama make believe accusations all shows that the regime is even having a hard time to coin a line of story that sticks.
If possible, what the Meles-Bereket clique wants us to believe is that there is no such plot to change the government or even to portray the whole drama as a fabrication for the sake of rounding up opponents. Alas, who would expect Meles to shout to the world of a “coup attempt” and put precedence in the minds of his servants in the military and security machinery such a dangerous idea? Why would Meles risk in exposing the fragile and untrustworthy nature of his military and security machinery with a coup fairy tale as he makes it seem look like? Now the regime seems to be in damage control mode by trying to contain the alcohol that has already escaped from the bottle where in fact the damage is real and irreparable.
If one connects the dots of the political message that the Meles-Bereket clique is trying to sell, it is evident that the attempt to conceal the involvement of Tigrean military and security officers like General Tadesse shows the desperation to keep TPLF followers in the dark and isolated in a dreamland. Plus, portraying the TPLF followers as being out of any revolt against the Meles-Bereket clique is intended to show a curtain of strength to hide behind as having a solid and undivided military and security machinery whereas the reality is being concealed.
Now Meles hopes for an engagement for the army and security to keep them busy. In this whole picture, it is more than probable that Ginbot 7 is being used as means of diverting the internal and external attention from the debilitating crack evolving from within the-outwardly-strong-looking-EPRDF. Change from within is a dimension of danger for Meles as this start has set precedence for future revolts be borne out of the military and the security machinery. Mark my words! For the Meles-Bereket clique, the damage is already done and such a phenomenon is an accident that is waiting to happen.
Addis Ababa — Ethiopia’s next national election is a year away, but tensions are already increasing. At least two opposition politicians have recently been jailed, both possibly facing life in prison, and security forces have arrested dozens of others, accusing them of plotting against the government. Both government and opposition leaders are expressing concern about the potential for election-related violence.
No Ethiopian needs reminding about the horrors that followed the disputed 2005 election. Nearly 200 protesters killed in the streets by security forces, more than 100 opposition leaders arrested, convicted of treason and sentenced to life in prison before being pardoned.
When government spokesman Bereket Simon kicked off the 2010 election season, he said a top priority of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) would be preventing violence. “This election must be peaceful. Government must do whatever it takes to ensure that our election will be peaceful,” he said.
Prime Minister Ethiopia’s dictator Meles Zenawi warned that government forces would have little tolerance for street protests. “The 2005 experience was experience enough for anybody to be able to learn from, and so I’m sure our law enforcement entities will be much better prepared for any eventuality than they were in 2005, not only in terms of handling riots, but also in terms of deterring and preventing riots,” he said.
Opposition activists are equally concerned. It was their supporters that were killed in the streets four years ago. Many fear 2010 could be as bad or worse than 2005.
Already, several government opponents have been jailed. Among them, Birtukan Mideksa, a charismatic young former judge who was among those sentenced to life and then pardoned after the 2005 election.
Birtukan had been touted to be a potent force in the 2010 vote. But she was re-arrested and ordered to serve out her sentence after saying she had not asked for the pardon.
Another prominent member of Birtukan’s party, Melaku Teferra, was among 40 people accused last month of involvement in a coup plot directed by {www:Berhanu Nega}, who was elected mayor of Addis Ababa in 2005.
Berhanu and Melaku were also among those jailed for life after the last election. Melaku stayed in Ethiopia after being freed. Berhanu fled to the United States, where he teaches economics at a Pennsylvania university and heads a political group that advocates the overthrow of the Meles Zenawi government.
Merera Gudina is another political science professor who doubles as an opposition leader. Merera teaches at Addis Ababa University. His party is among eight opposition groups banding together in hopes of mounting a serious challenge to the ruling EPRDF.
Merera worries, however, that next year’s vote may turn into a replay of last year’s local and bi-elections, in which the EPRDF and its affiliates won all but three out of nearly 3.6 million seats being contested. Most opposition parties pulled out of the contest in advance, complaining the rules were written so only pro-government parties could win.
Merera says given that the EPRDF now controls all local administrations, this election will be a struggle to prevent Ethiopia from becoming a one-party state.
“Our role is… to make sure this government cannot rule without accepting the rules of multi-party democracy. We are in a struggle. This government is not ready for change, and this government is cheating left and right and its ultimate agenda is revolutionary democracy. We know all these things, and in fact people who were with (Prime Minister) Meles, who used to play those games and clearly know these games, are now with us,” he said.
Seeye Abraha Hagos is a former member of Prime Minister Meles’s inner circle. He was military commander of the guerrilla force that brought the Meles government to power. After a falling out with the government, he was convicted of corruption and spent several years in prison. But he is still popular among his former military colleagues
Seeye is now a member of the coalition of opposition groups know as the forum. He says the only ways of breaking Ethiopia’s long tradition of violence-plagued elections is to ensure opposition parties and their supporters know change is possible through the ballot box.
“There is always violent opposition in Ethiopia. Even if you take out the 2005 elections, there was violent opposition in this country. So if we are ever going to control violence in this country, the only way out is to chart a peaceful political transition. No peaceful elections, no peaceful political transfer of power would mean there will be continuous violence in this country, and this can take this country down the drain given our poverty,” he said.
A year before the May, 2010 election, Ethiopia displays all the outward signs of calm. Despite grinding poverty, frequent power cuts, and a severe foreign exchange shortage that has seen imported goods disappear from stores, there is little evidence of the country’s violent past.
But opposition leaders and political analysts caution that the outward appearance masks a deep-seated longing among Ethiopians for freedom of political expression. Former defense minister Seeye Abraha likens the country to a dormant volcano. It might look calm, but even a small disturbance could set it off.
ADDIS ABABA — The wife of a cabinet minister in the Ethiopian regime, Ato Tefera Walwa, was arrested and later released.
Wzr. Ayne Tsige was taken to jail when she tried to stop the police from taking away her 80-year-old father, Ato Tsige HabteMariam, who went through a heart bypass surgery recently.
Ato Tsige was arrested, along with 40 other individuals, after being suspected of plotting to assassinate Meles Zenawi.
Ato Tsige HabteMariam is the father of {www:Ginbot 7} secretary general Ato Andargachew Tsige.
Ato Tefera Walwa, Minister of Capacity Building, was in a meeting when his wife was taken to jail. When he heard about his wife’s arrest, he interrupted the meeting and walked out, according to The Reporter… [MORE]
ADDIS ABABA — The wife of a cabinet minister in the Ethiopian regime, Ato Tefera Walwa, was arrested and later released.