Minnesota man sentenced for setting fire to home with infant inside
A Minnesota man has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for setting fire to a home while five people were inside, including a 9-month-old baby who had to be rescued by firefighters, according to federal prosecutors.
The fire happened at 11:27 a.m. on May 31, 2024, when firefighters responded to a burning townhome in Eden Prairie, a suburb southwest of Minneapolis. Three children and an adult man had escaped by the time emergency crews arrived, but the infant was still inside.
Firefighters entered the home and found the baby, who survived but was taken by ambulance to a hospital, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota.
Abdirahman Abdi Abdullahi, 23, of Eden Prairie, pleaded guilty to arson resulting in personal injury and was sentenced to 180 months in prison, the attorney’s office announced on Monday.
Prosecutors said Abdullahi was on probation at the time for violating a restraining order that barred him from contacting the baby’s mother, who lived at the home.
Two days before the fire, Abdullahi sent the woman a threatening message that said, “when I see u I’m smoke u,” according to court documents. Prosecutors said he also went to the home that day and threatened to kill her.
On the day of the fire, Abdullahi used a rental car rented by someone else and drove to a nearby gas station with a gas can, which he filled with gasoline. He then parked down the street from the townhome, hiding the car behind a row of hedges.
Wearing plastic gloves, Abdullahi carried the gas can and a large plastic bag filled with clothes through the hedges to the victim’s home. A fire investigation found that he doused the bag with gasoline and set it on fire at the entrance of the home.
The flames collapsed the garage roof, melted the front doorknob and destroyed the home, prosecutors said. Neighboring townhomes were also damaged.
At sentencing, the court found that Abdullahi intended to kill the baby’s mother when he set the fire. The court cited his level of planning and described his preparation as “calculated, cold,” prosecutors said. Because of that finding, Abdullahi’s sentence followed the guidelines for attempted murder.
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