2 Charged After Man Shot in Face During Saint Paul Robbery

Mar 24, 2025

Two suspects are facing felony charges in connection with a robbery attempt that left a man shot in the face earlier this month in Saint Paul.

According to criminal complaints filed in Ramsey County District Court, Omar Abdi Mohamed, 26, and Omar Mohamud Ibrahim, 19, are accused of participating in what prosecutors say was a coordinated attack on a parked vehicle.

The incident occurred around 5 a.m. on March 10, 2025, when officers were dispatched to Hennepin County Medical Center after a man arrived with a gunshot wound to the face. The victim had initially been driven to M Health Fairview Hospital before being transferred to HCMC. Police later determined the shooting happened near the intersection of Emerald Street and Ellis Avenue in Saint Paul.

READ MORE > Saint Paul coverage

According to the documents, the victim and his girlfriend had been asleep inside a white Ford Expedition while moving into an apartment rented by the victim’s mother at 2700 University Avenue. The girlfriend awoke to the sound of banging on the passenger window and saw a man in all-black clothing, wearing a blue paisley bandana and holding a handgun. A second armed man appeared at the driver’s side. The girlfriend said one of the men appeared to be Somali.

After waking the victim and urging him to drive away, the suspects moved in front of the vehicle and pointed their firearms. One of them fired a round through the windshield as the vehicle began to move, striking the victim near the mouth. Despite his injury, he drove a short distance before switching seats with his girlfriend, who then took him to the hospital.

Police recovered a bullet fragment and a spent casing from the area. Surveillance footage and phone data helped investigators piece together the suspects’ movements before and after the shooting.

Footage from the apartment complex showed Mohamed, Ibrahim, and a third man entering the building just before 3:40 a.m. Surveillance later captured Mohamed and the third man exiting the building and heading toward the area where the shooting took place. Mohamed was wearing a black puffy jacket that had earlier been carried by Ibrahim.

FREE > Sign up for the MN CRIME newsletter

Additional footage showed two men running through the area shortly after the shooting and later regrouping at a gas station in Minneapolis, where they were picked up by a black Audi sedan registered to Ibrahim. The suspects then returned to the University Avenue apartment roughly 30 minutes later.

Search warrants executed on March 19 led to the arrests of Mohamed and Ibrahim at the apartment where the shooting took place. Investigators recovered clothing worn during the incident, including the jacket and shoes seen in surveillance videos, the court documents say. The apartment’s balcony overlooked the location of the shooting and both suspects’ phones were tracked to the area at the time of the shooting.

Mohamed has been charged with attempted second-degree murder, attempted first-degree aggravated robbery and second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon. He remains in custody with bail set at $1 million. Ibrahim is charged with aiding an offender as an accomplice after the fact and is accused of facilitating the suspects' escape and concealing evidence. His bail was set at $300,000.

The investigation remains ongoing and authorities have not publicly identified the third man captured in the surveillance footage.

> See more of our latest coverage