A 22-year old Somali man who arrived in the United States in September faces charges of criminal sexual conduct, a felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
“A Minneapolis man is being charged with criminal sexual conduct after being accused of raping a woman on a bus passing through Crookston Friday,” according to the Crookston Times.
“Mohamed Harir Ayanle, 22, was released from the Northwest Regional Correction Center Monday on a $5,000 bond and on the condition that he does not leave Minnesota,” the Times reported.
According to the criminal complaint filed with the Minnesota 9th Judicial District Court in Polk County, the suspect “just moved to Minnesota on September 22, 2016 from Somalia.”
Breitbart News contacted the Crookston Police Department and asked whether Ayanle spoke English, whether he arrived under the federal refugee resettlement program or a different immigration program, and for details on his current visa status, but did not receive a response.
Breitbart News also contacted Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Lutheran Social Services, two of the largest resettlement agencies based in Minnesota, and asked if either had helped to resettle Ayanle, but did not receive a response.
“According to the court complaint, the Crookston Police Department were dispatched to 2200 University Avenue – the location of the Crookston Inn & Convention Center – on a report of criminal sexual conduct on a Jefferson Lines bus traveling from Minneapolis to Grand Forks,” The Times reported:
The victim told dispatch that another passenger on the bus threatened her and made her have sex with him. She said that Ayanle said he “had something,” which she believed to be a knife though she never saw a knife, and that was the reason she went with him.
The victim said Ayanle first approached her when she was sitting with her daughter and invited her to come watch a movie with him in the back of the bus when her daughter fell asleep shortly after a stop in Bemidji. Once she went to the back of the bus, the victim said Ayanle forcibly removed her clothes and raped her.
Ayanle told authorities that the pair had consensual intercourse and denied threatening the victim.
“A sexual assault evidence kit was collected at RiverView Health and the Polk County Sheriff’s Office is assisting in the continued investigation,” the Times added.
Crookston, a city of 7,800 with a 15 person police force, is located 25 miles southeast of Grand Forks, North Dakota.
Though Ayanle’s immigration status is currently unknown, two Somali refugees have recently been killed while committing acts of domestic terrorism.
On September 17, Dahir Adan, a Somali refugee in his twenties, attacked ten people with a knife in a St. Cloud, Minnesota mall before he was shot and killed by an off duty police officer.
On November 28, Abdul Razak Ali Artan, a Somali refugee said to be either 18 or 20, attacked eleven people with a car and then a knife on the campus of Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio before he was shot and killed by a campus police officer.
Minneapolis, Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community in the United States, estimated to be about 70,000 in total.
Breitbart News asked Somali Community Resettlement Services, based in Rochester, Minnesota, if they provided assistance of any kind to Mr. Ayanle, but has not received a response.
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