KENT, Wash. — An 18-year-old man is facing murder and robbery charges for his alleged involvement in the fatal shooting of a 13-year-old boy at a Kent park on July 16 during an online sale gone wrong.
Faysal J. Abdullahi, of Kent, is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree robbery. Abdullahi’s bail is set at $2 million, and his arraignment is set for Aug. 5 at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.
Prosecutors say Abdullahi “orchestrated an armed robbery that left a 13-year-old bystander dead and narrowly missed striking his 15-year-old sister with bullets.”
Evidence gathered by detectives determined Abdullahi reportedly chose the time and place for the robbery, organized a getaway driver and staged positions in the park before the other teens arrived.
“While [Abdullahi] himself may not have intended to kill any of the victims that night, he orchestrated and set in motion a chain of events that killed one and could easily have killed others,” Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Thomas C. O’Ban wrote in the charging documents.
On July 16, Abdullahi allegedly set up a meeting to buy a backpack full of camera gear from a seller through the OfferUp website. They agreed to meet at Turnkey Park in Kent that night.
The victim, 13-year-old Matthiew Stavkovy, went to the meeting with his sister, the seller and another friend.
While the seller was negotiating the price with Abdullahi, who was using an alias, acquaintances of Abdullahi’s came out of the park with a pistol and started firing, according to court documents. Abdullahi then reportedly grabbed the backpack from the seller and pushed him down.
When Stavkovy and his friends saw the gun and heard the gunshots, they ran to their ATVs to get away. Stavkovy was shot in the back after he got on the vehicle.
His sister was with him on the ATV and took over driving to a nearby apartment complex when Stavkovy lost consciousness. Multiple people called 911 and authorities responded within minutes. However, Stavkovy died before they could get him to a hospital.
Law enforcement identified the suspect through the IP address used during the OfferUp exchange. After a brief stakeout, law enforcement officials reported seeing Abdullahi leave the corresponding address with the same camera bag from the sale and he was arrested.
Abdullahi allegedly told detectives that he set up the sale meeting and that he arrived to the park with two other people. He claimed he did not know the fourth suspect, who was masked and pulled out a gun, and that he emerged from somewhere in the park, documents state.
After the shooting, all four suspects fled together and despite this, Abdullahi told detectives he did not know the shooter’s identity.
