warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
the investigation of the killing of 67-year-old Ming, who was gunned down during a robbery in the parking lot of a Costco in Tukwila in 2024.
The accused shooter, Salman Haji, 20, was arrested by the FBI in Nairobi, Kenya, and returned to Seattle to face charges of murder, robbery, and carjacking.
it was here on the streets of Queen Ann Hill overlooking downtown seattle
where a seeimgly minor traffic accident would kick off an hours long crime spree that plice say led to a 67 year old women been gunned down.
and accused killer slipping past police and an interntional manhunt taking investigators across the globe.
there was simply no way for anyone here on these normally quite streets that morning to know the chaos and tragedy that was coming.
the first victim of january 26,2024, was right here at 9th avenue she said that she got rearended and when she got out to exchange information with the other driver, a man put a gun in her face , stole her car keys, and took off in her SUV
and that’s where the first video picks up . a seattle police raced into the area.
an officer’s dash camera was recording when he said he was that stolen porsche SUV going east on mercer street. he zips through traffic to catch up to it and follows the car onto I5 while radioing updates to other officers.
it was just south of downtown where the car swerves and then takes off. the officer attempt to follow ,but he can’t keep up. the carjacked porsche gets away from the police, but investigators say the suspect inside it aren’t done yet.
about 45 minutes later at this QFC grocery store in normandy park,another camera captures that porsche SUV pull into the parking lot.
the driver gets, then the passenger, and it’s here where we see a clear shot who police identify as Salman Haji next to him , police say that is then 19 year old Ilyiss Mohamud Abdi .
inside the store , police say they are using the credit card of the women they just carjacked to buy gift cards. after a few minutes, that video shows them take the gift card and leave, getting back in the porsche SUV.and police say moving on to their next target.
20 minutes later and 5 miles away in tukwila, a camera is rooling as that porshe SUV comes into the east parking lot of cosco.police say salman haji is in the passenger seat and Ilyiss Abdi is behind the wheel.
another camera captures these two women walking to their car with no hint of the danger they are about to face.
the camera shows them load groceries as the porsche drives by then flips around and heads back ,stopping right behind the women.
this is when police say salman haji gets out of the car and approaches the driver to steal her purse. there is a struggle and the passenger ,67 year old ming tries to help her sister.
you can’t see it here, but inside the car, police say haji heats the driver with his gun then shoots ming in the chest . he runs back to the porsche and they speed off.
this camera recording that stolen porsche leaving the area.
first responders raced in and tried to save ming’s life , but she died .bystanders were in shock after what happened.
seattle police and the carjacking victim were able use a GPS tracker to locate the porche in a parking lot behind a church in the city of SeaTac.
in the days after the shooting ,police said very little about what had happened and their investigation.but behind the scenes, investigators knew if they could solve the carjacking in seatle,they could likely solve the murder in Tukwila.
now the victim of the carjacking said that her credit card was used ad the§QFC grocery store.
remember that video ofthe store entance and the gift cards at the cash register?
well, that became a top priority for investigators.
and this moment, when the suspect turns his head. at first investigators didn’t know who this was ,but they put out a police bulletin asking if any cops in the area knew him. they did.
an officer from des moines’s police said that he recognized this person as salman haji.and police said this still image matched haji’s driver’s licence photo.but that wasn’t enouh.
they had to turn to the stolen SUV in hopes that perhaps the killers had left behind clues.
now, according to charging documents, crime scene investigators found two sets of prints on this SUV.one matching salman haji and the other coming back to Ilyiss Abdi.
the court documents don’t say exactly what date investigators identified haji and abdi as their suspects in the carjacking and murder.
but there is one very important date,february 1st which is 5 days after the murder of ming. that day would change the course of the entire investigation.
while police were still quiet, a social media account known for posting about gangs and crime in seattle made a post identifying haji as the costco killer.
within a day , investigators say haji came here to the seattle Tacoma international airport and boarded a flight. investigators say he went to africa.
but again,police weren’t talking about any of this publicly at the time leaving many to wonder if investigators would ever solve the case.
then a few weeks later, there was another shooting down the rood in Kent.in thid case,a teenager was shot in the head and killed . and there was no connection at the time to the Costco shooting . but as kent investigators dug into it, thay came up with a suspect .
Ilyiss Abdi and in may of 2024, abdi was arrested for the kent shooting. and the next week, he and haji was both charged with the murder of ming.
while abdi was now in jail,investigators turned their intension to figuring out how to get haji back to washington.like everything in this case they kept theit work quiet.
then early this month , salman haji booked to the king county jail and given a bail of$5 million
the FBI says they tracked him down in Nairobi, kenya, and brought him back to seattle.
with both suspects now in custody ,the next step here is for the king county prosecuting attorney’s office to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
critical to that will be some of those videos. Ilyiss Abdi,who’s been in custody for more than a year .he haspleaded not guilty to these charges.
Salman Haji of course ,he was just brought back to the united states. he hasn’t faced a jude yet
one of the main questions , here is why did all of this happen? well, the Tukwila police departement put out a statement and they reiterated they believe that this was an attempted robbery in the parking lot of that costco.
haji who’s the accused shooter , also faces a federal charge of carjacking for stealing that women’s porsche SUV right here in Queen Ann.