Quick Facts:
- Suspect in Seattle double homicide wanted in New Jersey.
- Seattle incident be investigated as a hate crime.
- Suspect Ali Brown on the run for weeks.
- Seattle victims have no criminal history.
A man suspected of killing two young gay men in Seattle’s Leschi neighborhood last month is now wanted for a robbery and attempted carjacking in New Jersey.
Ali Muhammad Brown killed Ahmed Said, 27, and Dwone Anderson-Young, 23, shortly after midnight June 1 near 29th Avenue South and South King Street, police said. The case is being investigated as a possible hate crime.
On Sunday, a 46-year-old man in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, was robbed at gunpoint in front of a coffee shop. Police said Brown took the man’s wallet and keys before fleeing on foot. The victim wasn’t hurt.
An Ocean County judge issued a $500,000 arrest warrant for Brown. Police say Brown is familiar with the East Orange area of New Jersey. The New Jersey case details come from WOBM radio.
The station also reports that Brown is wanted for a third homicide in Washington, but it’s is not clear which case.
The week of the homicide, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray met with the mothers of the men who were killed walking home in Leschi from a Capitol Hill club. Neither man had a criminal history.
“It very much sounds like a hate crime," friend Tyler Rollins told KIRO 7 last month while visiting a growing memorial at the shooting site.
Rollins, who was especially close to Said, remembered him as someone everyone loved, and had no enemies.
“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,” Rollins said. “He's just a good guy."
Anderson-Young just graduated from the University of Washington and was scheduled to begin his career with Microsoft last month, close friends said.
“He was an angel,” friend Patricia Walton said. “This should have never happened to him. They were minding their own business and just so close to home."
Police said they initially received information linking Matalepuna Malu, 26, to the homicides.
Malu was arrested after he went to the Seattle Police Department headquarters and turned himself in Sunday. His family has said police arrested the wrong man, and Malu has not been charged with their murders.
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