MOORHEAD, MINN. (KFGO) – Police have arrested a suspect in the shooting death of a tax-cab driver in Moorhead.
Willie Sparkman Jr.,18, was taken into custody without incident Wednesday night following a joint investigation involving Moorhead and Fargo police, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, and the Metro Area Street Crimes Unit.
Police found Abdullahi Mohamed Abdullahi, 24, of Moorhead, with suspicious trauma to his body in a cab after responding to a single-vehicle crash in south Moorhead around 3:30 a.m. Wednesday. Police say he had been shot in a “planned robbery” and the two didn’t know each other.
Sparkman is being held in the Cass County Jail and is facing charges of second-degree unintentional murder while committing a felony and first-degree aggravated robbery.
Sparkman is also a suspect in two armed robberies in Fargo that happened prior to the Moorhead incident. The first happened at 11:50 p.m. Tuesday in the 3100 block of 27th Street South. A woman was approached by an armed man who demanded her property. She screamed and the robber fled. The second armed robbery was reported at 2:50 a.m. Wednesday in the 1900 block of 21st Avenue South. Neither victim was injured.
Fargo police said the suspect in both robberies had a similar description and is thought to be Sparkman, who is facing armed robbery charges in those incidents.
