Charges filed after player assaulted during basketball game at Twin Cities high school

NEW HOPE, Minn. — Charges have been filed after a high school basketball player was assaulted and seriously injured during a game in the Twin Cities.

The incident happened Tuesday night, Jan. 28, at Robbinsdale Cooper High School in New Hope, during a game against Fridley. Authorities said several people entered the gym and targeted a 17-year-old Fridley player on the bench.

The male victim was “struck on the top of the head with a metal tire iron, attacked with punches and attempted to be stabbed with a knife,” according to criminal complaints filed in Hennepin County court. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital and needed six staples to close the laceration on his head.

Three people were charged in the case on Thursday, Jan. 30: 18-year-olds Dursa Muktar Mohamed and Yahya Abdul Khanyare, both of Brooklyn Park, and 19-year-old Ayub Mohamed Ali of Circle Pines. They each face charges of second-degree assault and second-degree riot.

Mohamed is also charged with fleeing police.

Two other people, including a 16-year-old, were also arrested in connection with the assault and face charges.

The charges don’t outline a possible motive for the attack. Police said the incident was not random. Robbinsdale school officials said the suspects were not students in the district.

According to the criminal complaints filed against the three adults:

Video footage shows a group of male suspects arriving at the school together in a red sedan on Tuesday evening, and taking weapons from the vehicle. After several minutes outside the school and in the lobby, they “make their way to the gym, avoiding the ticketed point of entry, and walk straight toward the bench where the victim is seated.”

One of the suspects — allegedly Khanyare — runs toward the victim and strikes him with the tire iron.

“The victim was totally unaware the attack was about to happen,” the complaint states.

The complaint alleges the several other suspects joined in the attack while others served as lookouts. Teammates and coaches moved to protect the victim, and the suspects fled by car.

Responding police officers attempted to stop the car but the driver allegedly fled, and ended up crashing while trying to access a nearby freeway. Officers arrested the five suspects.

The three adults remained in the Hennepin County Jail as of Friday morning, Jan. 31. They made initial court appearances on Friday afternoon.