A Twin Cities man with a violent history has been sentenced for a shooting in Minneapolis that killed a mother and wounded the 2-year-old son she was holding in a vehicle as the child’s father stood nearby.
Ayale Abdullahi Ali, 21, of Savage, received a 37½-year term in Hennepin County District Court last week after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and first-degree assault in connection with the death of Lilian M. Polacin Perez, 35, of Minneapolis, and the attempted killing of her three children and their father in May 2024.
With credit for time in jail since his arrest, Ali is expected to serve roughly 23¾ years in prison and the balance on supervised release.
“This was a devastating act of violence that took Lilian from her family, injured her child, and traumatized others,” County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement Monday. “No sentence can return or repair what was lost that day, but the nearly 40-year sentence holds Mr. Ali accountable and protects the community.”
Police were called to an alley on the 2900 block of 18th Avenue S. in Minneapolis on May 19. Polacin Perez was holding her son, and both were seriously injured, according to police and court records. Polacin Perez then drove about 1¼ miles to Children’s Minnesota Hospital in Minneapolis. She was transferred to HCMC, where she died three days later.
Two other children were in the backseat of the car but not hit. No motive for the shooting was disclosed.
Polacin Perez’s brother-in-law, Jamie Chachipanta, told the Star Tribune after the shooting that the boy is named Suriel, and doctors told him the the child was “going to be OK.”
Surveillance video showed that when the father got out of the car, Ali approached from behind in another car. He got out of the passenger door and fired multiple shots. When the father came back to the car, he saw Polacin Perez and his son were shot and began screaming. Ali then shot at the father but missed.
