Eden Prairie Man Sentenced to 15 Years for Setting Fire to a Townhome with Children Inside (DOJ)

MINNEAPOLIS -An Eden Prairie man has been sentenced to 180 months in prison for setting fire to a townhome while five people, including an infant, were inside, announced U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen.

According to court documents, on May 31, 2024, at 11:27 a.m., the Eden Prairie Fire Department responded to a fire in a townhome. When the fire started, there were five people in the house, including one adult man and four children. When emergency responders arrived, they met the adult male occupant and three children outside, but the fourth child, a nine-month-old baby (Minor A), was still in the burning house. Eden Prairie firefighters entered the residence and found Minor A, who survived the fire but needed to be transported by ambulance to the hospital.

According to court documents and the record at sentencing, Abdirahman Abdi Abdullahi, 23, was on probation for violating a restraining order that prohibited him from contacting Minor A's mother, who lived in the burned home. Two days before the fire, Abdullahi sent a threatening
message to Minor A's mother stating, "when I see u I'm smoke u." On that same day, Abdullahi arrived at the door of the house and threatened to kill Minor A's mother. The day of the fire, Abdullahi used rental car rented by a third party. He traveled to a nearby gas station with a red gas can, which he filled with gasoline. He then parked the car in a parking lot down the street from the burned home where it was hidden by a row of hedges. Wearing plastic gloves, he carried the gas can and a large plastic bag, later found to be full of clothes, through the hedges to the victim's home. A fire investigation showed that Abdullahi used that gas can to douse the bag of clothes, which he set fire to at the entrance of the home. The flames collapsed the garage roof, melted the front doorknob, and ultimately destroyed the home. The fire damaged neighboring townhomes, as well.

Abdullahi pleaded guilty to Arson Resulting in Personal Injury as charged in the Indictment. At sentencing, the Court found that Abdullahi's intended to cause the death of Minor A's mother when he set the fire. The Court noted Abdullahi's level of planning and his "calculated, cold" preparation. As a result, the sentence for Arson followed the sentencing guidelines for Attempted Murder.

This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Minnesota State Fire Marshal, the Eden Prairie Police Department, and the Eden Prairie Fire Department.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys William C. Mattessich and Matthew C. Murphy prosecuted the case.