LAKEVILLE, Minn. — A Faribault man was charged with second-degree murder Tuesday after a fight with his Amazon coworker turned deadly.

Prosecutors said 24-year-old Mohamed Hared engaged in a physical altercation with his coworker, Ahmed Cariff, 22, outside Lakeville’s Amazon Fulfillment Center Saturday, eventually leading to Cariff’s shooting death.

The criminal complaint filed in Dakota County said Lakeville police officers responded to the facility just after 4 a.m. on Saturday, June 29, for a shooting. Court documents said among the multiple 911 callers reporting the shooting was Hared, who allegedly told dispatch he had “accidentally shot his coworker.” 

When police arrived, prosecutors said they found Cardiff lying face down in the parking lot between two cars, while Hared stood nearby, still holding onto a gun. A third coworker involved, police said, waited inside the building for officers to arrive.

The complaint said despite lifesaving efforts, Cardiff was pronounced dead at the scene and Hared was arrested without further incident.

Detectives who questioned Hared back at the station said they learned Hared — who legally had a permit to carry a firearm — and the unnamed coworker had carpooled to the center that morning. According to the complaint, Hared told investigators he left his handgun in his coworker’s vehicle during his shift.

Hared told prosecutors that while on break around 1 a.m., he went back to the car and saw his handgun in the same place, but noted a flashlight attachment was missing. Both Cardiff and the third coworker denied knowing about the attachment when confronted by Hared, according to court documents.

Over their next break around 4 a.m., authorities said the three coworkers returned to the vehicle to search for the attachment. As Hared placed his weapon in his waistband, documents said he told police he “politely” asked for the attachment back, but Cardiff became angry over being accused and “made a stance indicating he wanted to fight.”

Charging documents said Hared told police he had “no choice but to defend himself” after Cardiff allegedly moved toward him. Hared claimed he tried to run, but Cardiff wouldn’t stand down. The complaint said Hared told Cardiff, “Stop man, I don’t want to have to use this… ” before they became physically engaged in a fight and Hared fired his weapon.

Prosecutors said Hared told them Cardiff started to strangle him while trying to wrestle the gun out of Hared’s hands. Hared, whose first shot reportedly hit a vehicle, told 911 dispatchers Cardiff “tried to reach [for the gun] and that is when the other bullet fired.”

On the other side of the investigation, police said they also spoke with the third coworker, who told them they suggested getting security involved in the search for the flashlight. Hared, the complaint said, continued to accuse his coworkers of stealing from him, allegedly saying, “No. You guys took my flashlight. I want my flashlight back. No one’s going home today.”

The complaint said the coworker claimed they tried to break up Hared and Cardiff’s fight before the first shot was fired, adding it appeared Cardiff tried to get control of the gun. The witness said they and Cardiff both told Hared not to shoot before a second round was fired. 

The witness told investigators that’s when they then ran back into the building to call for help.

While reviewing surveillance footage, investigators said they watched as Hared threw the first punch. The complaint said authorities believed Hared could have fled the situation “on multiple occasions,” but instead, he repeatedly engaged in physical fights with Cardiff until the gun went off a second time.

According to the complaint, an autopsy showed Cardiff suffered blunt force trauma to the jaw area and abrasions on his hands “consistent with a fistfight.” Further, the autopsy allegedly showed the bullet that struck Cardiff tore through his heart, lung and aorta.

“It’s so senseless the victim was shot to death over such a trivial matter,” said Dakota County Attorney Kathy Keena. “Deadly gun violence has no place in our communities, neighborhoods or at our places of work. My condolences to the family and loved ones of Mr. Cariif.”

Hared made his first appearance in court on Tuesday where a judge set his bail at $1 million with conditions and $2 million without. His next hearing is scheduled for July 15.

If convicted, he faces up to 40 years in prison.

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GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — Investigators have confirmed the fires that damaged conservative businesses in Golden Valley last January were set intentionally.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) said a certified fire investigator determined that “incendiary fires” were intentionally set on two floors of the building at 8421 Wayzata Boulevard on Jan. 28. 

“Fire damage was most prominent for suites 100, 110, 300, 302, and all units within the building received smoke damage of varying severity,” the ATF said in a news release.

The building housed offices for the Center of the American Experiment, the Upper Midwest Law Center and Take Charge, all politically conservative organizations, all damaged in the fires.

The Golden Valley Fire Department said the fire on the first floor started with “multiple heat sources, including multiple ignitions.” The report says the fire started when a flammable liquid or gas in a container or pipe — specifically gasoline — was ignited. The ATF did not specify the ignition source in its statement to the media on Tuesday.

The ATF said it continues to actively investigate the fires, and asks anyone with information to call the ATF tip line at 888-ATF-TIPS or the Minnesota Arson Reward Tip Line at 800-723-2020.

The Center for the American Experiment has previously offered a $15,000 reward for “information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the individual or individuals” who started the fires.

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SUMTER COUNTY, Florida — Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, who has spent most of his life in prison since his conviction in the 1975 killings of two FBI agents in South Dakota, has been denied parole.

The U.S. Parole Commission said in a statement announcing the decision Tuesday that he won’t be eligible for another parole hearing until June 2026. Peltier is serving life in prison for killing the agents during a standoff on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He was convicted in 1977.

His attorney, Kevin Sharp, a former federal judge, vowed to appeal. He had argued that Peltier was wrongly convicted and that the health of the 79-year-old was failing.

“This decision is a missed opportunity for the United States to finally recognize the misconduct of the FBI and send a message to Indian Country regarding the impacts of the federal government’s actions and policies of the 1970s,” he said in a statement.

The fight for Peltier’s freedom is embroiled in Indigenous rights movements. Nearly half a century later, his name remains a rallying cry and “Free Peltier” T-shirts are hawked online.

“The way they have treated Leonard is the way they have treated Indigenous people historically throughout this country,” said Nick Tilsen, president and CEO of the NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led advocacy group. “That is why Indigenous people and oppressed people everywhere see a little bit of ourselves in Leonard Peltier. Although today is a sad day, we are not going to stop fighting.”

The FBI and its current and former agents dispute the claims of innocence.

“They were down, they were wounded, they were helpless and he shot them point blank,” said Mike Clark, president of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI. “It is a heinous crime.”

FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement that “justice continues to prevail.” And Natalie Bara, president of the FBI Agents Association, described Peltier in a statement as an “unremorseful murderer.”

“We believe this decision upholds justice for our fallen colleagues and their families,” the statement said.

An enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa in North Dakota, Peltier was active in the American Indian Movement, which began in the 1960s as a local organization in Minneapolis that grappled with issues of police brutality and discrimination against Native Americans. It quickly became a national force.

Tilsen, a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation, credits AIM and others for most of the rights Native Americans have today, including religious freedom and the ability to operate casinos and tribal colleges and enter into contracts with the federal government to oversee schools and other services.

AIM grabbed headlines in 1973 when it took over the village of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge reservation, leading to a 71-day standoff with federal agents. Tensions between AIM and the government remained high for years.

On June 26, 1975, agents came to Pine Ridge to serve arrest warrants amid battles over Native treaty rights and self-determination.

After being injured in a shootout, agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams were shot in the head at close range, Wray said. Also killed in the shootout was AIM member Joseph Stuntz. The Justice Department concluded that a law enforcement sniper killed Stuntz.

Two other AIM members, Robert Robideau and Dino Butler, were acquitted of killing Coler and Williams.

After fleeing to Canada and being extradited to the United States, Peltier was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced in 1977 to life in prison, despite defense claims that evidence against him had been falsified.

Amnesty International has been among his backers, writing in a statement that keeping him locked up is a “human rights tragedy.”

His latest parole hearing was in June at a high-security lockup in Florida that is part of the Federal Correctional Complex Coleman. Afterward, his attorney, Sharp, said the commission was legally obligated to “look forward,” focusing on issues such as whether he is likely to commit another crime if he is released.

Relatives of the two agents have long argued that Peltier should remain behind bars. In a 2022 letter to Wray, Coler’s son Ronald Coler said the campaign for Peltier’s release has been painful for the family.

“Not only has my family suffered the loss of my father, but we have also been forced to endure the insult that Peltier has become a favorite cause and figurehead championed by Hollywood, the music industry, politicians and well-intentioned activists who assume or believe he is being punished unfairly,” he wrote. “Peltier allows himself to be celebrated thus. He knows his guilt.”

Parole also was rejected at a hearing in 2009, and then-President Barack Obama denied a clemency request in 2017. Another clemency request is pending before President Joe Biden.

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