Prosecutors: Man shot by Boise police wielded knife, is accused of sex crimes with 3 children
The charges filed this week against a Boise man shot multiple times by police officers in late June include allegations that he sexually abused three different children under the age of 13, according to documents from Ada County prosecutors.
Mohamud Hassan Mkoma, 33, was charged via complaint with multiple felony counts, including three counts of lewd conduct with a child under age 16, one count of aggravated assault, one count of aggravated battery upon certain personnel, and one felony enhancement for use of a deadly weapon. He also faces single misdemeanor charges of violating a protective order, unlawful entry, malicious injury to property, and fleeing or evading a police vehicle.
Members of his family and supporters have rebuffed police statements about Mkoma’s actions, as they say police have released false information surrounding the shooting while avoiding the public release of additional details from the events of June 27.
In charging documents, prosecutors say that Mkoma committed lewd acts and sexually abused children ranging from ages 4 to 13 in January 2020. Prosecutors also allege that on the day Mkoma was shot, he brandished a knife toward a person who is not identified in the documents, and also threatened police officers with the knife, creating “a well-founded fear in Boise Police Officers that such violence was imminent, where the defendant knew or had reason to know of the Boise Police Officers’ official status.”
Mkoma’s family members have said that he speaks little English and suffers from diagnosed mental illness.
Prosecutors also allege that Mkoma — a Black Somali refugee who lives in Boise — violated a protection order signed on Sept. 9, 2020, by an Idaho 4th Judicial District judge, which includes Ada County in its boundaries. However, a court record search using the case number listed in charging documents yielded no results. A protection order issued against Mkoma in 2015 in a misdemeanor battery case expired in July 2017.
Court records do show a new order filed on Wednesday, July 14, the same day that charges were filed in connection with the shooting.
As of Friday, police have not confirmed the link between Mkoma and the 14-year-old boy who was with him the day he was shot. Family members say that Mkoma is the child’s father and that the boy was staying with his father and uncle.
Three Boise police officers — Steve Martinez, Aaron Hartje and Jeff Ridgeway — were involved in the incident, and all were placed on paid administrative leave, which is a standard practice for police departments following a police shooting.
A day before the charges were filed, members of Boise’s Somali Bantu community and supporters gathered outside Boise City Hall to protest what they say is a lack of transparency and accountability connected to the shooting.
Mana Mohamed, an East African refugee community representative, told the Idaho Statesman that the group would keep pressing for answers. “Police releasing that information is a way for our community to stay quiet. And we are not going to stay quiet,” she said by text message, referring to the slew of charges.
The shooting remains under investigation by the Ada County Critical Incident Task Force, which is being led by the Garden City Police Department. The City of Boise’s Office of Police Oversight also is conducting an inquiry into the shooting.
Mkoma remains at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, where he has undergone four surgeries, according to the family. Police have not updated his condition.
Ian Max Stevenson and Kevin Fixler contributed to this report.
