Teenager killed by driver in alleged “intentional” attack

By Aatif Ali Bokhari
TMO Managing Editor

A 15-year-old boy died after being hit by a driver in what Kansas City police say looks like a deliberate attack.

The unnamed boy and his friend were leaving a Somali Center and getting into a car Thursday evening when the driver rammed him with his black SUV. The boy’s legs were both severed and he lost a large amount of blood. Although he was rushed to a local hospital he died shortly after the attack. His friend is in stable condition.

“It became pretty clear that this was not an accidental crash, there is a considerable amount of evidence that leads us to believe it was intentional,” Sergeant Bill Mahoney with KCPD said.

“According to some witnesses, the suspect is a man in his 30s and known to them,” reported WDAF-TV. “They say he is also from Somalia, but that he has a history of hating Muslims.

“Family and people heavily involved with the Somali Center say a man had been threatening people in the Muslim community for months now on Facebook. Several others say that same man pointed a gun at them, threatening to kill them because of their Muslim religion.”

After ramming the boys the assailant tried to escape in his vehicle but due to severe damage was forced to flee on foot. Police caught him soon after he fled the scene.

Raw Story reported that the assailant had been threatening members of the Somali Center for months “even waving a gun at some attendees and telling them he was going to kill them for being Muslim.”

“For him to come and run over kids, that’s just ridiculous, who does that? I’m just very hurt, our family is very hurt. Please pray for our nephews,” one of the members of the mosque told WDAF.
Members of the mosque told WDAF that the 15-year-old boy was the son of the head of the Somali Center.

A rash of recent bias attacks have gripped the American-Muslim community. The vandalism of mosques in Rhode Island and Ohio, the killing of three young American-Muslims in North Carolina, and an assault at a Kroger grocery store in Dearborn MI are suggestive of a rise in Islamophobia.

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