By Christina Palladino
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – A distraught family is pleading for justice after their 75-year-old father died of a serious head injury suffered during an assault.
The family says he was a well-respected elder in the Somali community and they are devastated and in disbelief over the death of their father.
Charges say the man, Shirwa Hassan Jibril, told a group of boys on a Metro Transit bus to be quiet and they threatened to beat him. Surveillance video shows 23-year-old Leroy Davis and his buddies follow Jibril off the bus and then punch him.
Jibril hit his head on the pavement and immediately lost consciousness.
Leila Adan is Jibril’s daughter. She said she talked with him on the phone a few hours after he was violently assaulted getting off the bus near the Chicago/Lake Transit Center.
“The only thing I want is that guy is to face everything my family is going through and I want my dad to get justice,” Adan said.
Maslah Adam is one of Jibril’s eight children. He said the family and many in the Somali community are now afraid to get on any type of transportation after this horrific assault.
“I grew up in a society where I respect my elderly people,” Maslah Adan said.
He said his father was a loving grandfather and was in the process of trying to get his wife to move to Minnesota from Somalia. Now, those dreams of spending the rest of his life with his family and grandchildren by his side are shattered.
“He was a great father,” Maslah Adan said. “He loved his kids, no matter where they are, here or back home, he cared a lot.”
The 23-year-old whose been charged in the Elder’s death has a long rap sheet, including recent arrests in Dakota County for assault and terroristic threats.
Minneapolis Police are still looking for the other boys involved in this deadly assault.
Source: FOX9
