In the spring of 2017, a homeless woman missed her curfew at the shelter she stayed at and slept in a parking ramp in downtown St. Paul for the night.
She woke up to a man covering her face with a sweatshirt and ordering her not to look at him or he would kill her, authorities say.
He was armed with a knife and used one hand to hold her down by the throat as the woman kicked and screamed and begged the man to get off of her, promising to do what he wanted so long as he didn’t kill her.
Instead, the man repeatedly punched her in the face and slammed her head onto the concrete floor of the Capital City Plaza Parking Ramp, saying:
“I didn’t want to hurt you, but you made me.”
Then he removed her clothes and raped her.
That’s the account outlined in a Ramsey County criminal complaint filed against Liban Mohammed Dahir, 26, on Wednesday charging the Brooklyn Park man with one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.
After the sexual assault, Dahir stole the woman’s cellphone and took off, threatening to shoot her if she looked at him, the complaint said.
The woman, who is now 48, was taken by an ambulance to a hospital, where she underwent a sexual assault examination, authorities say.
She had dried blood on her hands, nose and leg as well as cuts to her left eye and shoulder blades, the complaint said.
The left side of her neck was also swollen and she complained of neck, jaw and back pain.
Before the exam was even complete, the woman “fell into critical condition” from her serious head injury, and later had to undergo brain surgery to repair multiple brain bleeds.
She now lives with a “severe traumatic brain injury,” the complaint said.
“Despite an extensive investigation” at the time, police were unable to locate the suspect, legal documents say.
Then, in October 2019, St. Paul investigators were notified by officers from Sommerville, Mass., that a suspect in a burglary case under investigation there was a “direct match to a single source male DNA profile” established in the 2017 rape case in St. Paul, authorities say.
Police arrested Dahir on Tuesday after learning that he returned to Minnesota and was on probation in Ramsey County in an unrelated case, the complaint said.
His DNA sample matched the one taken from the victim during her sexual assault exam, authorities say.
During his interview with officers, Dahir denied the rape and said he didn’t know the victim, though he acknowledged that he hung out with homeless people in downtown St. Paul in 2017, the complaint said.
When pressed about why his DNA was found on the woman, Dahir said it was possible he met her at a party during that time period while everyone was drinking, smoking marijuana and having sex, authorities say.
Then, as his interview was nearing an end, Dahir reportedly went further and said he actually did recall having sex with the woman in a bathroom at a house party in 2017.
He said he didn’t’ know how she would have suffered a head injury from their encounter, the complaint said.
His criminal record in Minnesota consists of a handful of misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor counts related to drinking and driving, violating an order for protection and disorderly conduct.
He is scheduled to make his first appearance on the rape charge this morning.
No attorney was listed for him in court records.