Updated at 10:07 p.m.
A 19-year-old Burlington man has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Hussein Mubarak, the Burlington Police Department announced Wednesday night.
Abdiaziz Abdhikadir is accused of killing Mubarak, 21, who was shot in the head on Luck Street near Roosevelt Park on July 7.
Abdhikadir also faces eight counts of attempted murder related to a Feb. 12 incident in which he allegedly fired shots into Murbarak’s home, according to a press release issued by Burlington police. Six children and two adults were in the Riverside Avenue apartment at the time of the February shooting, police said, but no one was injured.
“Just one death by gun violence in Burlington is too many,” Mayor Miro Weinberger said in the press release. “The charging of Abdiaziz Abdhikadir for two of the year’s most alarming incidents represents important progress towards accountability, justice, and prevention of future violence.”
Abdhikadir is currently being held at Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans on multiple unrelated charges, including an aggravated assault charge stemming from a 2021 shooting in Colchester. Burlington police had named him a person of interest in Mubarak’s killing in mid-July.
Authorities have previously described Abdhikadir as having a lengthy record, including nearly two dozen arrests as of November 2021 — and “a clear pattern of escalation” over time, from minor crimes to attempted homicide.
Abdhikadir is expected to be arraigned on the new charges via video on Thursday in Chittenden Superior Court.
Mubarak’s death was Burlington’s first homicide in more than two years. Since then, there have been three more homicides in the city.
Days after Mubarak’s death, more than 100 people gathered at Roosevelt Park in Burlington’s Old North End for a vigil to honor him. He had lived in the area for more than 15 years after his family had fled violence in Somalia and lived in a refugee camp in Kenya.
Nearly 500 people donated to a GoFundMe to cover Mubarak’s funeral expenses, raising almost twice its goal of $10,000.
At the vigil, Mubarak’s sister, Hamara Mubarak, described a sibling who was committed to supporting other people.
“He was just a very caring, loving person altogether,” she said. “And very funny.”