Police were hunting for a man who stole a woman's car and crushed her sister in the process.

Pam Louwgie and Tom Ford, Star Tribune
Last update: December 10, 2005 at 12:07 AM

In the confusion over seeing a thief steal her sister's car, Lul Ibrahim ran to help Thursday night, the sister said. On the way, Ibrahim's cell phone slipped out of her hand and she stooped to pick it up. That's when the car thief backed into her head, crushing it against another car.

Ibrahim was in critical condition Friday night at Hennepin County Medical Center with head injuries, relatives said.

Earlier in the day, her sister, Hawa Hassan, stood with more than two dozen members of the Somali community outside Ibrahim's hospital room.

"I don't care [about] my car, I just want my sister back," Hassan said tearfully. "She is the only sister I have."

She said she and her sister and a friend had gone out to dinner Thursday night. After 8 p.m., the friend drove them back to their cars at 24th Street and 10th Avenue S. in Minneapolis. Hassan had started her car and had left it briefly.

Hassan saw someone sitting in the driver's seat, she said. The man crashed her car into another at an intersection, and Hassan used the split-second opportunity to confront the thief, thinking he would get out and run away.

She opened the door and told him, "get out of the car." But he moved the car, knocking her over. Ibrahim rushed to aid her sister.

The thief backed up and that's when he struck Ibrahim, who was bent down, Hassan said.

Initial accounts of the event differed, although police noted that they are still investigating.

The driver took off and police were continuing to search for him Friday.

About 4 p.m. Friday, police spotted Hassan's stolen car, a 1996 Mitsubishi Galant, parked in the 2400 block of 15th Avenue S., five blocks from the site of the crime. Police hope that evidence from the car could lead them to identify the thief.

Ibrahim, of Eden Prairie, a mother of two, owns a store with her husband at a mall near the scene.

Community holds vigil

Ibrahim has always been outgoing and quick to help out and chat up her customers, said friends who gathered Friday night for a brief vigil outside the mall along with other Somali community members.

"We'd always talk about life," said Khali Jama, a longtime customer and friend.

Many at the vigil said that crime, including robberies and assaults, is becoming too common around the mall and surrounding neighborhood.

Some said that more street lights, better surveillance cameras, and more security officers are probably needed.

One business neighbor noted that before Ibrahim's customers left her store, she would always remind them to be careful.

Ibrahim's husband was returning home Friday from a business trip overseas, where he was buying items for the store, relatives said.

Friday afternoon, family members and friends were keeping watch for him at the hospital, waiting for word from doctors about the success of surgeries.

They prayed for Ibrahim and wondered how tragedy could strike so quickly against someone simply trying to help her sister in trouble.

The Somali Justice Advocacy Center is offering a $2,000 reward for anyone giving information leading to an arrest and conviction, said the center's executive director, Omar Jamal, a distant cousin of Ibrahim.

Pam Louwagie • 612-673-7102 Tom Ford • 612-673-4921

Source: Star Tribune, Dec. 12, 2005