Somali community promised full efforts in finding shooter

[Gabbal]

By Lornet Turnbull

Seattle Times staff reporter

 

A name is circulating within the Seattle Somali community of a man many within it believe may have shot and killed taxi driver Hassan Farah two weeks ago.

And Somali community leaders admit they are trying to restrain an outraged and frustrated population eager to see justice done.

 

Farah, a Somali immigrant who drove a Yellow taxicab on weekends, was found slain in his cab early Jan. 31 at 23rd Avenue South and South Graham Street.

 

Yesterday, Farah's friends and family gathered outside police headquarters in downtown Seattle and accused homicide detectives on the case of being "lethargic in following leads."

 

"We urge Mayor Nickels to open his door to the family and the Muslim community and demonstrate the value of our lives as contributing members of the Seattle community," said Ali- Salaam Mahmoud, whom the Farah family has named as its representative.

 

The Muslim Community Murder Task Force, formed to seek answers in the 39-year-old immigrant's death, spelled out its concerns in letters to the mayor and Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske.

 

Kerlikowske, coming outside to talk to the community members at the end of their news conference, told them he's sorry for their loss.

 

"We're going to put every effort into finding out who did this," the chief said. He later invited family members and members of the task force into a closed-door meeting.

 

Last night, following that meeting, Kerlikowske said the department is making a "full-court press" to find Farah's killer.

 

"We want the Somali community to feel protected and that we are working hard to solve the case."

 

Farah had been shot several times while still inside his taxi cab. He had picked up a customer from a McDonald's restaurant on Martin Luther King Jr. Way.

 

A manager at that restaurant yesterday said police confiscated videotape from a surveillance camera near a telephone booth across from the restaurant. Farah's fare apparently called for a cab from that booth.

 

A police incident report shows the engine of Farah's cab was running and the vehicle was still in gear when an officer arrived at the site of the shooting around 4:30 a.m. Police discovered a "large amount of shattered glass and other evidence."