By Trevor Wilhelm, The Windsor Star
Friday, August 13, 2010
Police are taking turning up the heat on a cross-dressing murder suspect by plastering the gang territory he’s likely hiding in with wanted posters and making an unorthodox reward offer.
The Windsor police major crimes unit has been on the trail of Mohamad Abukar Hagi since Dec. 22, 2007, when he allegedly shot a man who was running away.
“We raised the ante on the reward to $10,000,” said Det. Bill Stibbard. “We’re just hoping some citizens who want the reward will call in. It’s a situation where they don’t have to go to court. Normally we do it for information leading to the prosecution of somebody. This is just to get his arrest. So all somebody has to do is drop a dime and say he’s at this location. We get him arrested and they pick up 10 Gs.”
Hagi high-tailed it to Toronto after allegedly shooting Luis Acosta-Escobar, 20, during a fight outside the former Box Office Sports Bar on Pelissier Street. Police said Hagi shot him once in the chest. When Acosta-Escobar tried to run, Hagi allegedly chased him down and shot him again in the back.
Windsor police upped their reward earlier this month from $5,000 to $10,000.
Stibbard said Thursday that Hagi knocked on someone’s door near the scene right after the murder, and offered the person there $150 to call him a taxi.
“They did not,” he said. “They thought something’s up here and said ‘no thank you.’”
Hagi still managed to get himself a cab, and paid the driver $500 to take him to Toronto.
“He had some cash money on him,” said Stibbard.
On Wednesday afternoon, Toronto police began putting up wanted posters in the Eglinton Avenue West and Weston Road area to help out Windsor investigators.
“There are some gangs there,” said Stibbard.
That area is just a few kilometres from Dixon Road, which is the home territory of a violent street gang called the Dixon True Bloods.
“He has connections to the Dixon True Bloods,” Stibbard said of Hagi.
Police believe fellow gangsters are helping him elude capture.
Hagi, also known as "O.O.", "Uh Oh" and "Jamal," also has connections to Somali communities in Toronto and elsewhere in Canada.
Police have heard he’s been coming back and forth to Windsor, dressing as a Muslim woman with a burka or veil across his face.
“Which is perfect for him because it hides his face,” said Stibbard. “When he moves from one location to another he sometimes does that to avoid being seen or recognized.”
Stibbard said police are hoping the larger reward and wanted posters will inspire people to talk.
“We’re just trying to re-stir the interest and hope somebody will come forward for the money and turn him in,” said Stibbard.
Anyone with information about Hagi's location can call Windsor police at 519-255-6700 - 519-258-8477
[email protected] or 519-255-6850