A man has been sentenced to 180 months in prison for setting fire in 2024 to an Eden Prairie townhome while five people, including an infant, were inside, announced U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen.
Abdirahman Abdi Abdullahi, 23, was on probation for violating a restraining order that prohibited him from contacting the mother of one of the minors (Minor A) who lived in the home that was burned.
Court documents state that on May 31, 2024, at 11:27 a.m., the Eden Prairie Fire Department responded to a fire in a townhome on Cardiff Lane. When the fire started, there were five people in the house, including one adult man and four children. When emergency responders arrived, they met the adult male occupant and three children outside, but the fourth child, a nine-month-old baby (Minor A), was still in the burning house. Eden Prairie firefighters entered the residence and found the infant, who survived the fire but needed to be transported by ambulance to the hospital.
A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office said that two days before the fire, Abdullahi sent a threatening message to the infant’s mother stating, “when I see u I’m smoke u.” On that same day, Abdullahi arrived at the door of the house and threatened to kill the infant’s mother.
On the day of the fire, Abdullahi used a rental car that had been rented by a third party and traveled to a nearby gas station with a red gas can, which he filled with gasoline. He then parked the car in a parking lot down the street from the burned home where it was hidden by a row of hedges. Wearing plastic gloves, he carried the gas can and a large plastic bag, later found to be full of clothes, through the hedges to the victim’s home. A fire investigation showed that Abdullahi used that gas can to douse the bag of clothes, which he set fire to at the entrance of the home. The flames collapsed the garage roof, melted the front doorknob, and ultimately destroyed the home. The fire damaged neighboring townhomes as well.
Abdullahi pleaded guilty to arson resulting in personal injury, as charged in the indictment. At sentencing, the court found that Abdullahi had intended to cause the death of the infant’s mother when he set the fire. The court noted Abdullahi’s level of planning and his “calculated, cold” preparation. As a result, the sentence for arson followed the sentencing guidelines for attempted murder.
The case is the result of an investigation conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Minnesota State Fire Marshal, the Eden Prairie Police Department, and the Eden Prairie Fire Department.
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Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
Crime Watch MN
Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
