Updated at 7:22 p.m.
Burlington police have named a 19-year-old who has multiple pending criminal charges as a person of interest in the July 7 fatal shooting in the city’s Old North End.
According to an affidavit filed in court Monday supporting an aggravated assault charge that stems from a 2021 shooting in Colchester, police are also investigating Abdiaziz Abdhikadir in connection with the killing of 21-year-old Hussein Mubarak in Burlington this month.
Abdhikadir is being held without bail following his arraignment Monday.
The shooting on Luck Street was Burlington’s first homicide in more than two years.
Burlington police said in a Monday press release that they had identified a person of interest in the shooting death, though they did not release a name and have not responded to subsequent interview requests.
The suspect was seen around Luck Street minutes before the shooting and spotted fleeing the area on foot afterward, according to the police press release. He headed into the wooded area at the north end of Intervale Avenue, at the intersection with Manhattan Drive, the release stated.
“Due to the information gathered during (the homicide) investigation it has become evident that Abdhikadir has extreme tendencies toward violence causing the community to be frightened for their life,” Burlington police wrote in the affidavit filed Monday.
Police did not describe specifically how Abdhikadir, who also lives in Burlington’s Old North End, may have been involved in the July 7 shooting.
According to court documents, police say Abdhikadir shot at another man through a window at a home in Colchester in May 2021, leading the man to fear for his life.
Police said Abdhikadir was standing inside the home on Prim Road and fired multiple shots at a man who was standing directly in front of him outside the building.
In addition, WCAX reported, Abdhikadir was convicted in 2017 of simple assault and petit larceny.
South Burlington Police Chief Shawn Burke said Abdhikadir was arrested in the city on July 3. Abdhikadir was charged with possessing a stolen gun and “contributing to the delinquency” of a 16-year-old whom police found that night along with Abdhikadir and an 18-year-old in a stolen car, according to an affidavit filed the following day.
Abdhikadir did not appear in court to answer to those charges on July 5, Burke said. A warrant was issued for Abdhikadir’s arrest, and he was taken into custody on Friday.
According to court documents first filed in November 2021, Abdhikadir has had numerous dealings with law enforcement in the past decade. As of that date, he had been arrested 23 times since 2013, police said, and has been a “person of interest” or “suspect” in 34 other incidents since 2015.
Abdhikadir’s record shows “a clear pattern of escalation” over time, according to police, “starting with minor larcenies and assaults to more recently, robberies, larcenies from persons, and involvement in an attempted homicide.”
The “attempted homicide” police describe refers to the Colchester shooting.
Police also said Abdhikadir previously escaped from the custody of the state Department for Children and Families multiple times.
