BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — Group after group filed into the football field outside Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center to pray for five young women killed in a crash Friday in Minneapolis.
Police said a vehicle was going 100 miles per hour before the driver, now identified as 27-year-old Derrick John Thompson, left Interstate 35W and smashed into another vehicle on Lake Street, killing the women.
The medical examiner's office identified the victims as Sabiriin Mohamoud Ali, 17, Sagal Burhaan Hersi, 19, Siham Adan Odhowa, 19, Salma Mohamed Abdikadir, 20, and Sahra Liban Gesaade, 20.
All five women worshiped at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center. Their family members stood in the front row Monday afternoon as religious leaders prayed over the young women's bodies, asking Allah to accept them into paradise. Family members were also first to leave for the burial that followed at Garden of Eden Cemetery in Burnsville.
Given the crowd, buses were provided from the mosque to the cemetery.
Volunteers in neon vests were also on site to control the traffic flow, including Abdullahi Aden, who says he's known the Gesaade family for over 35 years.
"We are so heartbroken for them," Aden said. "Young, bright, want to be somebody. They're only just driving. Somebody come in, cut short their life."
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and his son, Minneapolis Council Member Jeremiah Ellison, stopped by to pay their respects, as did several uniformed police officers from the Muslim community.
Following the burial, the community gathered at Burnsville High School for more prayer.
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