Dead deer dumped on Somalis’ cars

MINNEAPOLIS — Somali and Muslim leaders expressed deep concern Saturday after a white man and his teenage son dumped bloody deer carcasses on the hoods of two cars owned by SomaliAmerican men in the central Minnesota city of St. Cloud, and they don’t believe the explanation the suspects gave to police.

The victims discovered the carcasses after leaving the YMCA on Wednesday night. In a news release Friday, Assistant Police Chief Jeff Oxton said investigators used surveillance video to track down the pair who dumped the carcasses — a 62-year-old man and his 14-year-old son. The video showed the teenager putting the skinned carcasses on the cars while the father, “knowing what was happening,” sat in their pickup, said Oxton.

“In a taped statement the suspects indicated that they needed to get rid of the carcasses and dumped them at that location in that manner,” Oxton said. “It is not believed that the suspects knew either of the victims.”

One of the victims and two community leaders scoffed at the suspects’ claims that they merely needed to get rid of the carcasses, pointing out that they had plenty of options for disposing of them properly or could have just dumped them in the woods.

“Putting it on the hood is a statement,” said Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.