Holly MatkinPortland, OR – An anti-police organization that posts bail for “Black, Brown and Indigenous folks” bailed a domestic violence suspect out of jail just days before he allegedly strangled the mother of his children to death.
Mohamed Osman Adan was initially arrested on Aug. 10 after a warrant was issued alleging he had cut off his GPS monitoring device and entered the home of his children’s mother, 36-year-old Rachael Angel Abraham, on July 26, The Oregonian reported.
At the time of the incident, Adan, 33, was facing charges of attempted assault and strangulation, as well as violations of a family abuse protective restraining order and a no-contact order.
Adan had been arrested for domestic violence-related incidents involving Abraham at least six times in the past, The Oregonian reported.
In her May petition for a restraining order against Adan, Abraham said that he had punched her in the head while she was sleeping and placed a gun against her head.
“Before, when I told him that I was leaving him, he told me that he would kill me,” she wrote in the petition.
Subsequent to his Aug. 10 arrest, Multnomah County Prosecutor Mackenzie Ludwig told the court that Adan should remain in custody while the case was pending due to “significant lethality factors,” including his potential access to firearms, a history of strangulation, repeatedly violating court orders, prior removal of a GPS unit, and allegedly threatening to kill Abraham, The Oregonian reported.
Multnomah County Circuit Judge Jerry Hodson denied Adan’s request to be released from jail or to have his bail lowered during a hearing on Aug. 19.
The following day, Portland Freedom Fund president Amanda Trujillo put up the required 10 percent of his $20,000 bail so Adan could get out of jail while his trial was pending, The Oregonian reported.
The court also ordered Adan to remain on GPS monitoring while he was out on release status.
Just a week after Adan walked out of jail, Portland police found Abraham stabbed and strangled to death inside her home, The Oregonian reported.
According to court records, Adan cut off his GPS monitor at 1:12 a.m. on Aug. 27.
A 911 call coming from a phone number associated with Abraham came in at 7:34 a.m., but was ultimately disconnected.
The dispatcher tried to call the number back, but it went to voicemail, The Oregonian reported.
One of Abraham’s neighbors called police minutes later and said she heard screaming and that she saw Adan pushing a woman up against an open second-story window, according to court records.
Police said Adan then called 911 at approximately 10:40 a.m. and told them Abraham was dead.
The dispatcher tried to provide him with instructions for performing CPR, but he refused, FOX News reported.
Officers responded to Abraham’s townhouse, which is located in the 3200-block of Southeast 92nd Avenue, and found the suspect in the downstairs area with three children ranging in age from two to seven, FOX News reported.
Abraham, a mother of six, shared two children with Adan.
According to court documents, investigators located Abraham’s body beneath a sheet in one of her children’s bedrooms on the second floor of her home, The Oregonian reported.
Police said the carpet beneath and around her was soaked in blood, according to FOX News.
Abraham suffered cuts to her hands, bruises on her arms and neck, and had a large, vertical slash across her entire face, prosecutors said.
Investigators recovered a kitchen knife that was lying near her body, FOX News reported.
The medical examiners concluded Abraham was strangled to death.
Adan was arrested on a charge of second-degree murder constituting domestic violence and unlawful use of a weapon, The Oregonian reported.
He was ordered to be held without bail.
Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office Spokesperson Elisabeth Shepard said the prosecutors who were handling the domestic violence case against Adan are seriously disturbed that the Portland Freedom Fund opted to bail him out when he posed such a propensity for violence, The Oregonian reported.
“Our prosecutors aggressively pursued a high bail amount in this case,” District Attorney Mike Schmidt said in a statement. “Mr. Adan’s intent to kill the victim was unambiguous. After the judge set Adan’s bail, the Portland Freedom Fund undermined our efforts and the efforts of the court to save the victim’s life by using their resources to bail him out.”
Schmidt noted that the court considers defendants’ ability to pay when bail amounts are set, The Oregonian reported.
“The action taken by the Portland Freedom Fund circumvented this, with tragic results,” he added. “We offer our deepest condolences to the family of the victim, and will dedicate our efforts to the full prosecution of this matter.”
The Portland Freedom Fund touts itself as a “volunteer-run abolitionist organization” that only puts up bail “for Black, Brown and Indigenous folks in Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties,” FOX News reported.
The group defended its decision to spring Adan from jail in a statement released on Tuesday, according to The Oregonian.
The fund said that the suspect was referred to them because of his alleged role “as a financial provider for two small children” and that he had a “letter of community support” from the African Youth & Community Organization.
Despite the charges he was facing, his significant criminal history, and his alleged threats to kill Abraham, the Portland Freedom Fund said it “did not receive any indications for concern” regarding Adan, The Oregonian reported.
“Our thoughts are with the families and communities affected by this tragedy, particularly the children who have effectively lost both parents,” the group said in a statement. “It is a profound tragedy when any person is harmed.”
