Thomas Breen Photo
Cousin Yolanda Ragland at Thursday's protest outside police HQ.
Aseelah Mohammed liked to get her nails done. She had a warm smile and frequently called her mom and cousin and siblings just to check in, even when her own life in New Haven was less than stable.
Mohammed died on George Street — leading family and friends to pressure police to treat the case like a murder, not just an overdose.
City cops, meanwhile, have arrested a 62-year-old for illegal disposal of Mohammed’s body, but have declined to charge anyone with murder after a state medical examiner’s report listed Mohammed’s cause of death as “undetermined.”
Thomas Breen photo
Imani Mohammed-Denny (center) on Thursday: "My daughter's life mattered."
On Thursday morning, Mohammed’s mother, Imani Mohammed-Denny, joined Mohammed’s first cousin Yolanda Ragland, Mohammed’s ex-boyfriend Ted Smith, Civilian Review Board member Jewu Richardson, and another half dozen of Mohammed’s friends and family for a protest on the front steps of police headquarters at 1 Union Ave.
Wearing shirts showing Mohammed’s smiling face and bearing the words “Justice for Aseelah Mohammed,” the protesters called out what they described as an incomplete police investigation, disrespectful treatment, and inadequate charges against those they believe harmed Mohammed.
According to Mohammed-Denny, Mohammed, 41, was pronounced dead on Dec. 28 after arriving several days earlier at a George Street homelessness services housing facility.
She did not live at that property, Mohammed-Denny said, but instead was apparently visiting someone.
Mohammed-Denny said that city police have told her that her daughter died of an overdose. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) has listed the cause and manner of her death as “undetermined.” A city police statement provided to the Independent for this article said that the OCME also “noted a combination of narcotic substances in her body” following an autopsy. (See more below for the police’s take on what happened.)
After reportedly seeing her daughter’s bruised head and watching a video showing her daughter’s body wrapped in a sheet and dragged down the stairs of the George Street building, Mohammed-Denny said, she’s convinced this was more than just an overdose. She wants to see the man or men her daughter was with at the Liberty Community Services-owned George Street building charged with murder.
“I’m here. I’m grieving. I’m hurting,” said Mohammed-Denny, who has moved back from North Carolina to New Haven to advocate for her daughter’s case. “My daughter’s life mattered. … She was a truly loved person. She had a beautiful heart. This should not have happened.”
A press release rally organizers sent out in advance of Thursday’s protest stated that Mohammed’s death “was swept under the rug because of her race, mental illness and drug addiction.”
“She was a very kind person,” added Mohammed’s ex-boyfriend, Smith, on Thursday. “I miss her. I loved her.”
Mohammed-Denny said that the detective investigating her daughter’s death told her that Mohammed “might have been selling sex for drugs” at the time of her death. She described that as a disrespectful thing to say to a mother grieving the death of her daughter. And even if that were true, added Richardson, “that doesn’t justify her being murdered.”
Assistant Police Chief Bertram Ettienne met privately with family members after the rally.
A police statement provided to the Independent empathizes with the hurt Mohammed-Denny is feeling following “the tragic death of her daughter, Aseelah Mohammed. We recognize that the loss of Aseelah is extremely difficult for her and share her desire to determine what happened. To that end, we appreciate any media attention that this may bring in the hope that anyone who has additional information will come forward.”
The statement also “respectfully” addresses Mohammed-Denny’s criticism of the police: “Our investigation has been conducted in a professional manner and was in no way affected by Aseelah’s race, mental health diagnoses, or substance use issues.”
The police statement notes that detectives stayed in touch with Mohammed’s family after her death, reviewed “numerous hours” of surveillance video footage from the facility where Mohammed’s body was found, and ultimately made an arrest of “an individual associated with her, charging him with Illegal Disposal of a Body.”
The 62-year-old arrestee was reinterviewed after his arrest. City police and the state’s attorney’s office “ultimately decided there was not enough evidence at that time to conclude that Aseelah was murdered. That may change should new information come to light.”
State court records show that the 62-year-old man was arrested on March 8 and has been charged with one felony count related to the illegal disposal of a dead body. He has not yet entered a plea to the charge, and is next scheduled to appear in court on April 9.
Police Report Details Case
An arrest warrant affidavit written on March 7 by city police Det. Jessica Stone notes that officers responded to the Liberty Community Services “housing and homeless services” building at 515 George St. at 1:43 p.m. on Dec. 28 for the “report of a medical.”
City police spoke with a staffer at the site who had discovered Mohammed’s body “underneath a piece of sheetrock” in a rear common area entryway of the building. She was wearing a shirt, hoodie, and jeans, was wrapped in a dark comforter with a white sheet by her shoulder, and her face was “lying near a heater located on the floor.”
Police interviewed a resident of the building whom they observed on a surveillance video from the evening of Dec. 27 “dragging something with his right hand and walking backwards into the rear common area entryway.” The room was dark, but the surveillance footage clearly showed a “sheet being dragged into the room.”
Detectives later obtained a search warrant for the resident’s second-floor bedroom, where they found “drug paraphernalia” and assorted pieces of clothing. The resident told police in an interview that he did not have any knowledge of Mohammed’s presence at the site. He also said he had smoked crack “as recently as yesterday.”
After police showed the man a screenshot from the surveillance video depicting him dragging something in a sheet, the man changed his story. He said that he did know Mohammed, had met her several days prior on Whalley Avenue, and that they had agreed to exchange “drugs for sex,” as the police report put it.
After they spent a night or two together smoking crack, the resident said, on the morning of Dec. 27, he realized Mohammed, whom he knew only as “Priscilla,” was dead.
He said he dressed her naked body, wrapped her in a black quilt from his bedroom, and used a sheet from his bed to wrap her head. He then described moving “Priscilla” into a blanket on the floor, and then “dragged her down the stairs while she was wrapped in the quilt, her face up and close to his body, her feet were extended away from him.”
The man said “it took a few hours” to get her as far as he did, then he “placed the sheet rock over her body.”
Other surveillance footage showed the 62-year-old male resident and Mohammed entering the George Street facility together on the morning of Dec. 24.
The arrest warrant affidavit states that the chief medical examiner’s report found a mix of fentanyl, cocaine, heroin, and other drugs in Mohammed’s body. “Additionally, the medical examiner found blunt force trauma of neck and extremities, with abrasions of lower extremities as well as intramuscular hemorrhage of right posterior neck.”
Stone’s affidavit concludes by stating the detective believes there is probable cause to arrest the 62-year-old male resident of Disposal of Bodies in violation of Connecticut General Statute 7 – 64.
Mohammed's cousin Yolanda Ragland ...
... and ex-boyfriend Ted Smith.
This is a tough case for the police because the OCME determination that the cause and manner of death is undetermined. Good luck getting a finding of probable cause that a murder took place! The pattern of injuries to her neck might indicate assault but if the medical examiner does not say this in their report and that such injury lead to her death the police once again have a causation problem. I'd be interested to know if the medical examiner's office was able to make any sort of determination as to how much time prior to her death such trauma took place.