Authorities in Portland, Maine, have arrested
three Somali-American men in connection with the brutal killing of a man inside
his apartment, then moved quickly to seal the case from public view.
Police arrested Abil Teshome, 23, Mohamud
Mohamed, 36, and Osman Sheikh, 31, on Thursday. All three are charged with the
murder of 49-year-old health-care worker Freddy Akoa.
Police have provided
almost no information on the killing, not the cause of death, not the type of
weapon used, nor any possible motive for the killing. They even refused to
release prison mugshots of the suspects. The Associated
Press and local TV stations
failed to identify the three suspects by their country of origin or race.
Akoa was found dead in
his apartment at 457 Cumberland Avenue on Tuesday and it was revealed at a
court hearing Friday that he had been dead since Sunday. He lived alone and,
according to his
LinkedIn page, worked as a hospital
and health-care professional in the Portland area.
Police said all three suspects were arrested on
unrelated charges and placed in custody Wednesday and Thursday when they were
charged with Akoa's murder.
WND found a mugshot of a man named Osman Sheikh
at an online police mugshot site that matches the age and place of residence of
the Osman Sheikh who was arrested.
Akoa was found dead about 12:15 p.m. Tuesday by
an apartment manager after his mother called police and requested a check on his
well-being.
The killing "wasn't random in nature,"
said Police Chief Michael Sauschuck, indicating the alleged killers knew their
victim.
The U.S. State Department, in cooperation with
the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, has sent 1,379 Somali
refugees to Maine since 2002, with 1,010 of them going to Portland, according
to the State Department's refugee database. Records prior to 2002 are not kept
online, but the U.N. has been sending Somali refugees to the United States
since the early 1990s with the full support of the U.S. Congress, despite the
fact that hundreds of them have turned out to be jihadists or criminals.
Of all the countries participating in the U.S.
refugee resettlement program, Somalia has the worst record. Countless Somalis
resettled in America have been investigated, arrested and convicted of violent
crimes and terrorism-related charges. More than 50 have left the U.S. to join
the ranks of ISIS, al-Shabab and al-Qaida, the FBI has confirmed.
Yet, the Obama administration, with the full
support of Congress, continues to infuse American cities with a steady stream
of Sunni Muslim "refugees" from Somalia. They arrive in the U.S. at a
rate of 7,000 to 10,000 per year, or about 600 to 800 a month, according to
records obtained by WND through a search of State Department databases. They
get resettled in more than 190 cities and towns, with many sent to the greater
Minneapolis-St. Paul area of Minnesota; Columbus, Ohio; Portland, Maine; San
Diego, California; Fargo, North Dakota; Wichita, Kansas, Boise and Twin Falls,
Idaho; Amarillo, Texas; Atlanta and Seattle; among other cities.
WND has reported on
numerous other criminal and terrorist elements who entered the country legally
through the refugee resettlement program, including one case where a refugee
from the west African country of Togo was in
the country only nine days before raping a woman in Virginia.
Congressman calls for
'pause' in refugee program
Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, recently introduced H.R. 3314, the
Resettlement Accountability National Security Act, which would press the pause
button on a program that grants permanent legal residency to nearly 70,000 new
refugee immigrants a year. The refugees qualify for a smorgasbord of welfare
benefits on day one upon arrival, including food stamps, subsidized housing,
public education, Medicaid and WIC (federal aid for women, infants and
children).
Babin's bill would temporarily suspend the
program until the Government Accountability Office completes a thorough
examination of its costs on local governments, states and American taxpayers,
as well as the risks to national security.
"The Refugee Resettlement Program has been
running on autopilot for far too long with little regard to economic, social
and national security implications," Babin wrote in a recent op-ed.
"We need to step back and examine all aspects of this program. Such as,
why is the U.N., whose policies often run counter to the best interests of the
U.S., even in the equation?" Babin introduced his bill July 29 and is
still looking for his first co-sponsor.
The Portland
Press Herald reported that Akoa, the murder
victim, had a clean record with no arrests, but at least two of his alleged
killers have extensive criminal rap sheets.
Sheikh has 33 criminal convictions, mostly
public order crimes such as criminal trespass, disorderly conduct and drinking
in public, according to the State Bureau of Identification. Teshome's criminal
record includes convictions for drinking in public and theft.
Akoa lived alone on the third floor of the
Cumberland Avenue apartment building. He is divorced and has three children,
according to the Press Herald article.
Alice Page, a resident of the complex, said the
apartments are not as safe as they were when she first moved in six years ago.
She told local TV station WMTW 8 that she used to be able to do her laundry at
any time of the day or night, but "now, you do it during the day or you
don't do it at all."
Authorities
tight-lipped, keep case files sealed
An autopsy was performed
on Akoa's body, but police declined to release the results, the Bangor
Daily News reported.
Police announced Wednesday they were
investigating the death as a homicide but refused to say how the killing was
carried out. When the final arrest was made Thursday, they remained mum, and
the secrecy then spilled over into Friday's court hearing.
Assistant Attorney General John Alsop, who is
prosecuting the cases, asked the judge at the start of Friday's
first-appearance hearings to seal the case files against each of the three men
from public view for one week as investigators continue to compile evidence in
the murder investigation, the Press Herald reported.
Warren granted Alsop's
motion with the condition that if the prosecution doesn’t file an extension
within a week, the cases against the men will become public, including the
detailed affidavits police filed to obtain arrest warrants against each man,
the Press
Herald reported.
Victim was 'kind and
loving person'
Akoa's brother, Benoit Akoa, released an emailed
statement on behalf of the victim's family.
"Freddy was a very kind and loving person.
Freddy did not deserve to be the victim of such acts of violence, no one
deserves that. We, his brothers sisters and parents will miss him dearly. This
was a senseless and violent crime and we trust in the system, that justice will
prevail," Benoit Akoa said in the email.
http://www.wnd.com/2015/08/judge-seals-file-in-somali-muslim-suspects-murder-trial/
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