West Seattle Crime Watch followup: Robbery suspects charged

| Arbor Heights | Crime | West Seattle news

The three men arrested last Wednesday night after allegedly holding up a woman in Arbor Heights and trying to rob a man in Fauntleroy have just been charged. 22-year-old Hassan I. Abdirizak, 19-year-old Abdulkamir A. Ahmed, and 21-year-old Najib A. Aden are each charged with two counts of first-degree robbery and one count of attempted first-degree robbery. Though investigators say they are suspected in other robberies – the documents say “additional charges are likely” – the charges filed today are for the Arbor Heights and Fauntleroy incidents and a robbery earlier that same night on Beacon Hill. The documents do not mention any other West Seattle incidents; Ahmed is alleged to have claimed the three, and others, were involved in 7 holdups on Capitol Hill. The documents do confirm what we found in research last week – no known criminal history for Abdirizak and Ahmed, but Aden was arrested in June for theft and harassment. Accordng to police, the car in which the three were found in Arbor Heights (WSB photo above) belongs to Aden’s aunt. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office asked that bail remain set at $250,000 each (8:12 pm update: that’s where it stayed); the three, none of whom lists a West Seattle address, are scheduled to be arraigned on September 9th.

West Seattle Hipster August 26, 2013 (3:36 pm)

Great coverage on this case. Hopefully the prosecutor can build a good case and put these guys away for a long time.

Nana August 26, 2013 (5:05 pm)

Good job to the SPD!

Seattlite August 26, 2013 (7:33 pm)

SPD keep cleaning up the streets == excellent work. I hope these three thugs go away for a long time. Plus, Spokane SPD caught the two thugs that killed that poor WWII vet.

eric1 August 26, 2013 (7:46 pm)

Great to hear. Hopefully they are the guys who have been robbing people all over the city and this three man crime wave will be over.
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Criminals should be on notice to stay out of West Seattle unless they want to be caught.

joel August 26, 2013 (8:07 pm)

it’s people like this the cops should get 5 minutes of taser practice on.

what’s the bet on these 3 – probation or maybe 3 months time?

people like this should be implanted with a gps so they can always be found.

M. August 26, 2013 (8:10 pm)

Poor career choice, guys.

Ajax August 26, 2013 (8:21 pm)

OK, I’m probably going to get a lot of flak for asking this, and DISCLAIMER – I have no idea if these suspects were born here or naturalized citizens, or what their status is. Call me a typical American who sees “foreign” sounding names and makes assumptions… My question is, if these guys (or anyone convicted of this type of crime) are on a green card, student visa, etc., will deportation be part of the punishment if they are convicted? The reason I’m wondering is that previous witness statements on the robbery spree (possibly unrelated) stated that they may have been East African, and I’m thinking that being deported back to some of those countries may indicate that they don’t have a very solid understanding of cost benefit analysis.

WSB August 26, 2013 (9:10 pm)

Disclaimer: Unless it somehow turns out to be a factor in the case at some point down the road, we will not publish any further comments regarding the suspects’ ethnicity, nationality, etc. However, via moderator’s discretion, I am choosing to publish and address Ajax’s comment. Citizenship generally does not come up in court documents unless prosecutors feel the need to make a statement about someone having cause to flee the country. The documents we’ve seen do not include information regarding these three, and of course you cannot assume that a name signifies/verifies/is related in any way to citizenship. However, while researching the suspects’ backgrounds the other day, I did note one is in the public voter database (a helpful research tool for finding people, separate from its actual purpose). Doesn’t mean the other two aren’t registered to vote, nor would non-registration be an indication of citizenship, since voting isn’t mandatory. Regarding whether a penalty or sentence would involve deportation for a convicted criminal who is not a citizen – I don’t know; perhaps our legal-expert readers do. I did find this:
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http://www.justice.gov/usao/eousa/foia_reading_room/usam/title9/crm01934.htm

Christina August 26, 2013 (9:01 pm)

Those mischievous rascals had quite a string of hijinks including West Seattle incidents.

For those who asked: Hassan I Abdirizak is a US citizen as evidenced by an entry on the Washington State Voters List; I do not know the residency status of Ahmed nor Aden.

Any noncitizen – lawful permanent resident found guilty of an aggravated felony can be deported under federal law.

george August 26, 2013 (9:49 pm)

There are these new kiosks called ecoATM’s that buy back phones. Makes you wonder if these phone thieves are targeting phones for quick cash at said recycle kiosks.

Seattlite August 26, 2013 (10:00 pm)

ICE deports illegals that have committed crimes in USA. I believe they also try to deport illegals upon release from USA’s jails. ICE seems to focus on those illegals that commit crimes rather than those that are not criminals. But, as we all know, all illegals commit their first crime by being in the USA illegally — just a fact.

waterworld August 26, 2013 (11:24 pm)

Ajax and WSB: This is an overgeneralized statement, because there are lots of exceptions to the immigration rules. Obviously, if someone is a citizen, naturalized or by birth, deportation is not on the table. For non-citizens, commission of a crime of moral turpitude is grounds for removal. Robbery is a crime of moral turpitude, so, in general, a non-citizen will enter the removal process after serving his or her sentence for the crime. As I said, though, there are exceptions and the rules are very, very complex.

For whoever was wondering what sentence they face, it’s unlikely to be something like three months. If a person with no criminal history of any kind commits first degree robbery, the standard sentence range is 31 to 41 months, with three years as the mid-range sentence. Robbery in the first degree is a “strike” offense, meaning that the third conviction nets a sentence of life without parole. (Due to the way the law works, a person who has no prior strike offenses on his record cannot get all three strikes in one case, even if the charges include three qualifyiing crimes. However, after earning one strike, a defendant can theoretically get two more in a single case.)

There are other things that can increase the sentence. If a defendant has any kind of criminal history, then the standard range sentence will be higher. If a defendant had one prior serious violent felony, the range would be 41-54 months; if he had two, it would be 51-68 months. If any one of the defendants used a weapon, that adds a mandatory two years to the sentence; a firearm adds five years mandatory to the sentence for each conviction of robbery.

All this makes it really hard to tell, but the low end is over 30 months. A typical sentence for a few armed robberies, though, is over 15 years, due to the firearms adding five years for each count.