Monday, December 29, 2008

JOHNNY NORTHSIDE EXCLUSIVE: MYFOX WILL AIR REPORT AT 5 PM TONIGHT ABOUT BODY FOUND AT 2222 4th St. N.

Photo By John Hoff

Here is the latest info on the body found at 2222 4th St. North.

I can now confirm local television station MyFox reporter Tom Lyden has managed to interview the mother of the person believed to be the murder victim. (ADDENDUM: Subsquently, it was learned the mother was unwilling and/or unable to do an interview with Fox, but Fox had an exclusive interview with the brother)

The victim is oh-so-strongly believed to be a young woman, a minor, and a former straight-A student until she fell in with the wrong sort of guy. However,her identity has not yet been confirmed. Much of this delay with identification took place because of the holiday and the usual amount of time it takes with a body that is decomposed.

MyFox is in the always-awkward position of trying to inform the public without jeopardizing the investigation because obviously any information aired in the media will get to the suspect.

One law enforcement official, speaking to me anonymously, told me he'd be "very surprised" if the murder victim was not the person whose identity is suspected but "stranger things have happened." The official also took issue with rumors the victim had been shot and believes those rumors, posted on a comment thread, to not be true. This much the law enforcement official can say with certainty: it is not a stranger preying on females. However, the suspect has not been...and these are the words of the police official...."brought in." Until the identity of the victim is confirmed, they can't arrest him.

Of course...and I'm just adding my own commentary here...there are some fairly-persistent reports of statutory rape, so I'm wondering why the guy was never brought in on THAT? (I wish I had a picture of this creep)

I'm also told by a source that Mahmood Khan has 25 to 30 properties in addition to the hellhole at 2222 4th St. N, but there is some uncertainty because the properties are listed under Mahmood Khan, Mahmood K. Khan, and Mahmood Kamal Khan. Are these all the same guy? Unknown. I have a list of properties provided by a source but it may take me a while to slash through all this info and get some stuff posted.

Tune in to MyFox for the story. I'm confident in saying MyFox wouldn't even have the story without my tips, but I'll say this: it's a beautiful thing when the blogosphere and the mainstream media cooperate for the greater good. This whole matter is, however, very tragic and from the sound of things...some no-account petty thug who goes by "Snoop" or "Freaky" is in need of a speed date with the Goddess of Justice.

(Do not click "Read More")

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Strib just posted a story online...has the girls name, age, etc.

Anyway, just an FYI

Margaret said...

Just got a media advisory that the MPD is doing a press conference at 4, requesting the public's help in getting info about the suspect. Not sure if the media/you forced the issue or whether the leads they were developing went as far as they could go without doing a general story about it.

Anonymous said...

KARE 11 ran a report, ID'ing the victim as Annshalike Shanta Hamilton, 15, and the fact that she was 6-7 months pregnant.

Their online version of the story is also available - unfortunately, they misstate the address as "222": http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=534068&catid=2

They included press conference footage, so I'd like to guess that this made every station in the metro.

Anonymous said...

Looks like most of the stations have the story. So why was Don Samuels the city council spokesperson at the press conference? KSTP went on to say he was the council person for our ward which we all know isn't true. Nothing against Samuels. In fact I really like him.

Anonymous said...

Lead story on WCCO.com: http://wcco.com/crime/garage.pregnant.body.2.896584.html

KSTP.com (has video):
http://kstp.com/article/stories/S722473.shtml?cat=1

FOX 9: http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=8161187&version=7&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1

Anonymous said...

I'm thinking Samuels was there maybe because Hoffstede was unavailable/out of town due to holidays. Not sure but that was my first thought. Plus Samuels is chair of public safety committee.