Wednesday, December 28, 2016
By Beth Burger
The 911 dispatcher asked the caller who had been shot.
In a calm voice, 21-year-old Ali Mohamed said, "My little brother."
"Did you see who did it?" she asked.
"I did," he told her on the recording of his call on Monday afternoon from a residence on the Near East Side. "He had a knife coming toward me. So I shot him with my gun in the stomach."
A woman's screams grew louder in the background as the call went on.
About nine hours later, 19-year-old Mohamud Mohamed died of the gunshot wound at OhioHealth Grant Medical Center.
Ali Mohamed, who has a gun permit, turned over his gun to investigators.
On the phone he told a dispatcher, "I feared for my life in my own home."
Mohamud Mohamed's pocket-size switchblade knife was found in the residence in the 1000 block of Caldwell Place.
"It appears it was self-defense," said Columbus Police Sgt. Dave Sicilian, who oversees the first-shift homicide unit.
Sicilian said the slaying remains under investigation and the Franklin County prosecutor's office will review the case.
On Tuesday, about 20 women gathered in the living room of the residence. One woman said the all declined to comment for religious reasons.
In July, police say officers were called to the same home for a domestic incident that was later ruled to be a civil dispute. It's unclear who was involved in that case.
Mohamud Mohamed's death marks the city's 106th homicide this year. That is the highest number of homicides the city has experienced in seven years. In 2008, a total of 109 people were killed, according to Dispatch archives.