June 9, 2014
Seattle Suspect in Murder of 2 Gay Men At Large
Jason St. Amand READ TIME: 2 MIN.
One of the suspects accused of the double murder of two gay men in Seattle is currently on the run, police said Thursday.
Seattle's CBS-affiliate station KIRO-TV reports police say that the suspect, Ali Muhammed Brown, is believed to be a transient who previously frequented Seattle's South King county area.
According to authorities, he is believed to be armed and dangerous.
Brown and Matalepuna Malu, 26, are accused of killing Ahmed Said, 27, and Dwone Anderson-Young, 23, on Sunday. Both men were gay and police are investigating the slayings as a possible hate crime.
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, who is gay, met with the mothers of the murdered men this week. The victims were walking home from a nightclub when killed and neither had a criminal record, KIRO-TV reports.
"It very much sounds like a hate crime," Tyler Rollins, a close friend of Said, told the station while visiting a memorial at the site where the men were killed. "Every time I was with him he always made me laugh, always put a smile on my face and he always touched everyone around him. He's just a good guy."
Anderson-Young graduated from the University of Washington and was readying to start a career with Microsoft next week, close friends told KIRO-TV.
"He was an angel," Patricia Walton, a friend of Anderson-Young, said. "This should have never happened to him. They were minding their own business and just so close to home."
Malu was arrested Sunday after turning himself into the Seattle Police Department. Malu has not been charged with the murders and his family says authorities arrested the wrong man.
"Police have not referred the case to the prosecutor's office -- an unusual step after a double homicide arrest," KIRTO-TV writes. Malu, however, is being held on unrelated second-degree charges from an assault case and on Thursday he was ordered to be held in lieu of $100,00 bail.
Gov. Murray told a crowd Wednesday that he promises to find justice.
"I'm the mayor now, it's my problem," he said, according to KIRO-TV.
