LEWISTON — A trio of Lewiston teens were charged with conspiracy to commit murder this week after a call was intercepted from a juvenile detention facility.
Shamsi Abdinoor, 19, and Mahad Abdikadir, 18, have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder, criminal solicitation and tampering with a witness, informant or victim.
A 17-year-old inmate at the Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland, who police say pressured Abdinoor, his pregnant girlfriend, and Abdikadir to commit violence against a local father and son, was also charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
That teen was not identified due to his juvenile status.
Lewiston police said they were notified by the district attorney’s office earlier in the week that a suspicious call had been monitored at the detention center.
“During monitored phone calls, the juvenile allegedly communicated through Abdinoor to pass messages to other associates,” according to a Lewiston police news release. “These conversations included instructions to pressure two individuals into confessing to a recent shooting, accompanied by serious threats of violence, including plans to acquire a firearm to enforce those threats.”
According to a court affidavit, Abdinoor was one of several local teens advised by the 17-year-old that she and other associates should contact a local man and his son and convince them to confess to a shooting at 158 Blake St. on Aug. 12.
If they refused, the caller said, “They should be whacked.”
The call was placed by the 17-year-old Lewiston teen serving time at the youth center after he was charged earlier in the month in connection with the Aug. 12 shooting.
The 17-year-old spoke Somali during the call, according to the court document, which was later translated. The caller, investigators said, advised that the father and son should be shot if they refused to confess.
“It should be noted that throughout several of the recordings, (the 17-year-old) repeatedly stated that he wanted the victims to be both beaten and shot,” the affidavit said.
During the calls, investigators said, the 17-year-old had Abdinoor record an audio message to a male he referred to as “Pshordy,” according to the affidavit. Police said that name is a known reference to Mahad Abdikadir.
In the message from the 17-year-old, Abdikadir was likewise instructed that the father and son were to be beaten should they decline to confess to the shooting.
The caller “was clearly angry in these messages and was attempting to intimidate his associates into carrying out violence against the victims,” according to the affidavit, filed by Lewiston police Officer Spencer P. Simoneau.
Once advised of the phone call, police quickly interviewed several of those involved. In a police interview, Abdinoor, who told police she is pregnant with the 17-year-old’s child, insisted that the phone calls were just talk and that no actual violence was planned.
Police, however, also interviewed the father and son who were the alleged targets of the scheme.
The father, according to police, told them that both Abdinoor and Abdikadir had pressured him to confess to the shooting, claiming that there would be violence otherwise.
The two were arrested at 158 Blake St., where they live with several of the others involved in the phone calls. Both were being held without bail Thursday at the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn.
Several arrests were made weeks ago in connection with the Aug. 12 shooting at the heart of the alleged conspiracy, which police say involved drug trafficking at 158 Blake St.
