Man gets 37.5 years in Minneapolis shooting that killed mom, injured toddler
Mom remembered after Minneapolis shooting
A Minneapolis mother whose final act was to drive her son to the hospital, after both were shot in Minneapolis last weekend, was remembered on Sunday.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - A man will serve more than three decades behind bars after pleading guilty Thursday to a May 2024 shooting that killed a mother and injured a toddler in Minneapolis.
Ayale Abdullahi Ali pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in connection with the incident. He’ll serve at least 25 years in prison.
What happened
The backstory:
Ali was facing four counts of attempted second-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder, for allegedly shooting into a car with three children and their mother inside on May 19, 2024.
The shooting, which court records say was captured on surveillance video, happened in an alley on the 2900 block of 18th Avenue South in Minneapolis.
A father, his wife, and their three children arrived at a relative’s house to borrow some tools when another driver pulled up behind them. Charges claim Ali got out of the passenger side while armed with a gun, slowly walked up to the family’s car, and fired multiple shots inside.
When the father returned to the car, Ali allegedly shot at the man but missed.
Charges say Lillian Poalacin Perez had been holding her 2-year-old son in the back seat, and both had been injured in the shooting. The two other children in the car were unharmed.
Despite being gravely injured, Perez drove her son to Children's Minnesota to get him help. Perez died at Hennepin County Medical Center three days later.
The investigation
What we don't know:
According to court records, law enforcement learned through witnesses that Ali may have been the gunman and obtained a search warrant for his social media and cell phone records. While searching through the digital evidence, authorities say they found pictures of Ali holding firearms and text messages in which he was allegedly trying to trade firearms just hours after the shooting.
Authorities said cell phone data also placed his phone at the scene of the crime, and a selfie taken hours before the shooting shows Ali wearing what appear to be the same shoes the gunman was wearing on surveillance video, charges allege.
The Source: Ali pleaded guilty in court Thursday, and was sentenced immediately after. His sentencing was obtained in court documents.