It started with a fight outside a restaurant on Main Street and ended with a 23-year-old man stabbed to death early Sunday in Burlington’s fifth homicide of the year.
Police have identified the victim as Abubakar Sharrif, who city officials say was a Burlington resident and Somali immigrant. They have not yet identified a suspect.
“We are working to identify all the participants in the fight (there were several), although our priority is identifying and arresting the murder suspect,” Jon Murad, the acting police chief, wrote in an email on Monday.
Chol Dhoor, founder and director of the Sudanese Foundation of Vermont and a member of the Vermont New American Advisory Council, said he did not know Sharrif personally but connected with a family member who said they are not ready to comment at this time.
“I was saddened to hear about the tragic loss of this young man’s life,” Dhoor said.
A shrine created at the site of the murder reads, “In memory of Boosie,” with handwritten messages, flowers and candles.
Since Sharrif’s death, city staff have been in touch with community members who are immigrants, Black, Indigenous and people of color to discuss how best the city can support grieving and concerned residents, according to Samantha Sheehan, Mayor Miro Weinberger’s spokesperson. Representatives from the mayor’s office, the city’s Racial Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Office and the police department have been involved, she said.
In his weekly press conference on Tuesday, Weinberger mentioned the “terrible incident of violence” and extended condolences to the Sharrif family.
“As I said before, we should never get used to the violence we are seeing in Burlington, especially this year,” he said.
Weinberger said that he will soon announce a new round of actions he plans to push for at the state level to support public safety in the city.
At about 3:08 a.m. on Sunday, dispatchers received calls about a disturbance and assault at Piesanos Burlington, a restaurant near the intersection of Main and Church streets.
“The fight appears to have started inside the restaurant. It may have briefly spilled outside, but it ultimately came back inside,” Murad said. “The victim was stabbed inside the restaurant and collapsed there, where he was found by responding officers.”
Sharrif was found bleeding heavily from apparent stab wounds. Officers placed a chest seal on him before members of Burlington Fire Department arrived and took over medical care, Murad said.
Sharrif was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said. No other details have been made public as the investigation continues.
Sandrine Kibuey, president of the Vermont New American Advisory Council, said incidents like this compound trauma for many refugees, asylees and their families in Burlington.
“As a Burlingtonian, a new American and a mother of young black children, I am saddened and worried that such an incident has happened,” Kibuey, who is originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, wrote in an email. “It is difficult not to be concerned by the murder of this young black New American man and the rise of violence seen lately in our city.”
The council, originally built to encourage civic engagement, has also begun to address gun violence. It’s an area of increasing concern since Burlington’s first homicide this year, in which another member of the city’s immigrant community, Hussein Mubarak, 21, was fatally shot in July.
The council has made several recommendations to the city to help mitigate the negative impacts of crime and violence on immigrant and refugee families and call for a more inclusive, culturally responsive and fair public safety system. This includes calling for more people of color and multilingual hires in the police department, de-escalation and cultural responsiveness training and community representation in planning and decision-making groups.
“The Burlington Police Department is responsible for the safety of all its residents and I already see positive actions being taken to address it,” Kibuey said.
The city has also been engaged in critical conversations about public safety but there has been “little noticeable engagement from our New American communities,” she added.
More work needs to be done at the city and state level to better engage an understandably reluctant immigrant community, said Rev. Mark Hughes, executive director of the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance. Hughes said communities of color are often negatively impacted when one of their own is associated with a crime, including when that person is a victim.