Somali refugee chokes woman ‘nearly unconscious’ while high on khat

A 30-year-old East African migrant is accused of strangling a woman to the point of “nearly unconscious” at a motel in Stearns County, Minnesota, while high on the Somali drug of choice — khat.

Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed, described by the local newspaper as “a St. Cloud man,” was charged Tuesday with felony domestic assault, fifth-degree felony possession of a controlled substance and interfering with a 911 call. 

According to the criminal complaint filed in Stearns County District Court, officers were dispatched to Asteria Inn & Suites in Waite Park on Saturday for a domestic assault in progress. Officers said they were allowed inside the room and noticed a woman “was crying and motioned to her neck.” 

She told police Ahmed had “strangled her which interfered with her breathing and that (he) punched her three times in the breast,” the complaint states. The victim had bruises and a scratch on her chest. 

[This happened one day after another Somali refugee, Asad Abu Mohamed, 32, was caught trying to rape a female student in the women’s restroom at Minneapolis Community and Technical College in Minneapolis.]

Officers saw Ahmed attempting to put a plastic bag in his pocket that officers believe to be khat, which is a green, leafy plant grown in Somalia that contains the narcotic cathinone, also known as Catha edulis. It is illegal in the U.S. but that doesn’t stop Somalis from smuggling it into the country, often through a European city.

The St. Cloud Times was so careful not to reveal Ahmed’s ethnicity as a native of Somalia that it even covered up the country where most khat is grown: “Its use is widely accepted in certain African countries, but the stimulant is considered a controlled substance in the United States,” the newspaper reported.

When officers asked Ahmed about the assault, he “was chewing on a green leafy substance and appeared to be under the influence,” according to the complaint. He told officers he never hit the woman and tried to claim the khat was hers. 

Ahmed had an outstanding warrant, however, for his arrest in connection to an unrelated drug-possession charge. 

The female victim told police “she wanted to leave the hotel and (Ahmed) became angry with her and she could not go,” the complaint states. The victim said she told Ahmed she was going to call the police, at which point he took her phone and slapped her face and “placed his hand on her throat and squeezed at the same time he pulled her hair and she had a difficult time breathing and almost went unconscious,” the complaint states. 

The victim told police she was able to push Ahmed off her but he then punched her multiple times in the chest. She told police the phone fell out of Ahmed’s pocket and she was able to call the police; Ahmed tried to grab the phone from the victim and it disconnected once, but she was able to call again. 

For our growing list of violent crimes by Somali refugees in Minnesota, Ohio, the Dakotas, Georgia, Maine, Oregon, Vermont and other states, see our recent series that included “25 reasons to end Somali refugee resettlement now.” and “Rogue Somali refugees Part 2.”

The U.S. has imported more than 140,000 Muslim refugees from Somalia, a country in perpetual civil war, since the late 1980s. Nearly half of them have gone to Minnesota, with the other half scattered throughout more than a dozen states including Ohio, Washington, the Dakotas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Maine, Alaska and Texas.

At a public forum in October 2015, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, when confronted with concerns about the mass influx of refugees from Somalia, responded by telling Minnesotans if they can’t be tolerant of the migrants “then find another state.”

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Leo Hohmann is a veteran journalist and author of the 2017 book “Stealth Invasion: Muslim Conquest through Immigration and Resettlement Jihad.” If you appreciate this type of original, fact-based and independent reporting, please consider a donation of any size to this website. We accept no advertising and are beholden to no one.