The Scott County Attorney’s Office charged Mohamed Abdirizak Rage on Monday, June 1, in the shooting and killing of Khalid Abdi.
Prosecutors charged the Shakopee resident with second-degree murder and illegal possession of a firearm.
Rage, 28, allegedly killed Abdi last Wednesday in the parking lot of Canterbury Park following a Muslim prayer service. The shooting fell on Eid al-Adha, one of the holiest days on the Islamic calendar.
According to the charges, witnesses told police that Rage approached Abdi in the parking lot as he and his wife were exiting prayer services and tried to fight Abdi. When Rage allegedly told Abdi he wanted to fight him, Abdi responded, “Please leave me alone, I do not want to fight.”
Rage allegedly followed Abdi in the parking lot, saying, “Let’s go” to him and filmed him with his cell phone. Rage allegedly started punching Abdi and the two got into a fight. Abdi repeatedly shouted “stop!”
A bystander broke up the fight and Abdi then tried to run away. Rage pulled out a gun and shot Abdi twice, including in the chest, according to the charges.
The charges don’t identify a motive for Rage, but they do state that Rage walked into the lobby of Canterbury Park right before the incident, saw and gestured toward Abdi and “acted animatedly,” according to video surveillance footage.
Shakopee police arrested Rage the following morning. He’s been held in Scott County jail ever since.
Rage has a criminal history including a third-degree felony assault conviction for a March 2021 incident in Bloomington where he beat a man using a crowbar. In that incident, Bloomington police say that Rage parked his car on 78th Street near the Nicollet Avenue intersection, got out, approached a man and hit him repeatedly with a crowbar. Rage also hit a woman who attempted to intervene, according to the 2021 police report.
Police later found the victim bloodied one block away outside of the Super 8 motel. He suffered a concussion and lacerations from the incident, according to the police report. Rage pleaded guilty to assault the following year and served three years probation.
Tributes to Abdi, who was 26 and expecting his first child, poured in from family, friends and colleagues following his death Wednesday.
“He was just a stellar, stellar human being,” said Max Hall, who worked with Abdi the past year at the American Federation of County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 5. “It’s a huge loss. All of us are really crushed by it.”
Family members also set up an online fundraiser to pay for funeral expenses and support of Abdi’s family. Abdi’s coworkers also set up an additional fundraiser to support Abdi’s wife and unborn child.
