AUBURN — A local man charged in the fatal shooting of a Lewiston man on Halloween night two years ago will spend seven years behind bars after pleading guilty Wednesday to manslaughter.

Androscoggin County Superior Court Justice Harold Stewart II approved a plea agreement struck by Abdikadir Nur, 22, and prosecutors, sentencing him to 16 years, but suspending more than half of that sentence.

Nur pleaded guilty as an accomplice to manslaughter.

He had been charged with the intentional or knowing murder of Hassan Hassan, 18, of Lewiston on River Street on Oct. 31, 2020. That charge was dismissed.

When he’s released from prison, Nur will be on probation for four years.

He’s been held without bail since his arrest.

An Androscoggin County grand jury indicted him on a murder charge in April 2021. He pleaded not guilty to the murder charge.

Assistant Attorney General Megan Elam said that, had the case gone to trial, she would have presented evidence that on the morning of the shooting, Lewiston police went to Hassan’s Knox Street home and found two of the family’s vehicles’ front and back windows smashed.

Twelve hours later, Auburn police found the windshield of the vehicle owned by Nur’s mother parked at her home at Aspen Court had been smashed.

A witness told Maine State Police that he, Nur and another man had been in an SUV Halloween evening when Nur learned from a phone call that his mother’s car had been damaged.

The group drove to River Street in Lewiston to talk to the uncle of the person they thought was responsible for the damage. That witness would later recant those statements, Elam said.

That evening, Lewiston police responded to River Street where they found a blood trail from there to Cedar Street, ending on Oxford Street. Hassan was found in a parking lot on Oxford Street with an apparent gunshot wound to his leg, Elam said.

He was taken to the hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

The cause of death was determined to be a gunshot wound to the left thigh that perforated his femoral artery, causing him to bleed to death, Elam said.

Police recovered four 9 mm Lugar casings from the crime scene, but no weapon was ever recovered, Elam said.

Several threatening Instagram messages from Nur to Hassan were found on his cell phone that day, Elam said.

A Maine State Police detective found on Nur’s phone a photo of him wearing a black jacket with three white stripes on the sleeve. Surveillance video footage of the crime scene that night showed a person wearing a jacket matching that description, Elam said.

The driver of the SUV Nur had been riding in told police he had picked up the defendant, who had been called “Larry” and another Somali man and was told to drive them to River Street. The two Somali men got out and the driver heard afterward five to eight gunshots, Elam said.

The driver told police that the other Somali man got back into the SUV, smelling of gunpowder, and said: “One went down,” Elam said.

The driver later drove to Auburn, where Nur got into the SUV and said: “One dropped,” Elam said.

On a trip to Portland that night, the driver said the men reportedly said: “Nobody’s going to f— with us,” Elam said

A female witness told police she was in a vehicle with Hassan, who carried a baseball bat. He exited the vehicle on River Street, Elam said.

“She would further testify that Hassan threw the bat at Nur, causing the gun to drop from Nur’s hand. She would further testify that she saw Hassan get shot and Hassan yelled, “my leg.” She also said that she saw Hassan and Nur run away.”

Nur and his attorney, Verne Paradie, said they dispute many of the details Elam said she would have presented at trial.

“The proof in this case was not airtight,” Elam said.

“Although we believe there were many people who could have, if they had chosen to, identify the shooter of Hassan Hassan, there was only one person who was willing to make the courageous decision,” she said.

“The issue for us, of course, is that one of the other people present now denies that she was even there to have seen it. And that was really one of our principal hurdles.”

Paradie told the judge: “It should not be lost on this court that there’s evidence that there were shots that came from the vehicle that Mr. Hassan was in as well. So, there’s evidence that the people he was with had a gun and were firing” also at the crime scene.

The victim’s sister, Malika Hassan, said Wednesday her “amazing” brother had been a good friend.

He had been cutting the hair of kids on their block for a couple of years and had hoped to pursue a career as a barber, she said.

The night of the shooting, a doctor called after midnight and told her her brother likely would not make it through the night.

“That had to be the worst thing I’ve ever heard,” she said.

She and her family rushed to the hospital to see her brother who was “barely alive” at that point.

“I couldn’t believe this was really happening,” she said.

When he was pronounced dead, “my whole life changed,” she said. And when she left the hospital, she said, “I felt a piece of me was gone.”

That was the first time she saw her father cry, she said.

Her brother had “always put a smile on my face,” she said. “When I was sad, he would cheer me up. When I was mad, he would calm me down.”

He had “changed many lives during his lifetime,” she said.

He would bring brightness to the lives of many, she said

“After he died, I never saw that brightness again,” she said. “I only felt darkness.”

Since her brother’s death, she has struggled with depression and anxiety, she said.

“My life will never be the same,” she said.

Nur also pleaded guilty to an unrelated charge of elevated aggravated assault earlier in 2020 for which he was sentenced to three years in prison, to be served at the same time as the seven years.

Copy the Story Link

Comments are not available on this story.

« Previous

FBI: Guard shoots man armed with knife at Muskie Federal Building in Augusta

Next »

Trucking company owner says driver disappeared after Portland crashes