Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions and may be disturbing to some readers.
Five men picked up an intoxicated woman outside a St. Cloud bar and drove her to a nearby park, where one of them raped her, according to charges filed last week.
St. Cloud residents Sahal A. Hassan, 24, and Abdirahin O. Ali, 21, were charged in Stearns County District Court with first-degree criminal sexual conduct and aiding and abetting criminal sexual conduct. Their three accomplices remain at large.
According to criminal complaints filed against the two men, the victim (identified as “M.A.C.”) was out drinking with some friends at the Pickled Loon on the night of Oct. 17.
“M.A.C. remembers being at the Pickled Loon for a period of time and then walking down the stairs and out the front door to go outside. The next thing M.A.C. remembers is being in a car with five Somali males. The men were talking to each other in another language which she recognized as Somali. The males were grabbing at her face and trying to kiss her,” state the complaints.
The victim tried to resist but her assailants repeatedly threatened her, calling her a “bitch” and telling her to “shut the f– up.” The five men were passing around a bottle of Hennessy and attempted to force the victim to drink from it.
After a short time, the suspects took the victim to a playground at Haws Park and “threw her on a slide.” She was then raped by Hassan while the other males were “encouraging” it, the complaints say.
“M.A.C. tried to hold the waistband of her pants to keep them on, but the defendant was able to successfully pull them off and vaginally penetrated her with his penis,” according to the charges filed against Hassan.
While continuing to “threaten her,” the group of males then took the victim back to their car and forced her to perform oral sex on Ali, the complaints allege.
The victim eventually escaped from the vehicle and went door-to-door looking for help, finally making contact with a female, whom she told what had happened, according to the complaints. The police were called around 1:30 a.m. on Oct. 18 and transported the victim to the hospital.
“When M.A.C. got to the hospital, she saw that her pants were ripped from the defendant forcibly pulling them off of her. When she removed her pants at the hospital for the sex assault exam, wood chips from the park fell out of her pants. Her underwear was not fully on and fell out of her pants. M.A.C.’s tampon was pushed up inside of her and was removed with forceps by the nurse,” state the complaints.
Officers spoke with a bouncer at the Pickled Loon and reviewed surveillance footage from the area to identify Ali and Hassan. Specimens collected from the victim matched the DNA profiles of both men.
The victim told police that she did not know any of the five men who assaulted her.
According to an additional complaint obtained by Alpha News, Ali was charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct in 2019. The 2019 complaint alleges that Ali repeatedly raped a woman in a St. Cloud apartment, but it appears he was never convicted on that charge.
The charges contained in the criminal complaints are merely accusations, and all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. If convicted, Ali and Hassan face up to 30 years in prison.
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Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
