And they’re all here. Why? — Ed.
Ahmednur Ali’s family fled the chaos and violence of their East African homeland Somalia in the 1990s, eventually making their way to Minnesota like thousands of their compatriots.
Whilemany of the estimated 32,000 Somalis who settled in the state havestruggled to adapt, Ali flourished. By age 20, he had blazed a path toMinneapolis’ Augsburg College, where he played soccer, studiedpolitical science and aspired to a political career modeled onPresident Barack Obama’s.
He was shot andkilled last September outside a busy community center where he workedpart-time as a youth counselor, and prosecutors said the 16-year-oldaccused of killing him was part of a gang.
Despite anger and despair over the killings in Minnesota’s Somalicommunity — the nation’s largest — police and prosecutors havestruggled to catch and try the killers. Few witnesses have steppedforward because of a fear of reprisal and deep-rooted distrust ofauthority. More than half of Minnesota’s Somalis are living in poverty,according to state statistics, and many complain that authorities arebiased against Somalis because of their Islamic faith.
Lastmonth, prosecutors dropped the murder charge against the teenage boy inAli’s case after one witness backed out and another apparently fled thestate.