Husband arrested over Shaima death

The husband of an Iraqi-American woman who was beaten to death near San Diego in March in a killing initially probed as a possible anti-Muslim hate crime has been arrested in connection with her death, police said on Friday. 

Shaima Alawadi, a 32-year-old mother of five, was found bludgeoned to death in her home in the San Diego suburb of El Cajon, home to a large Arab-American population, and died of her injuries several days later. A threatening note found at the scene suggested Alawadi might have been targeted because of her ethnicity. 

In a sign of how closely the case was being watched, the U.S. State Department expressed condolences for her death, and Iraqi government officials attended her funeral in Iraq. But while police at the time said they were considering hate as a motive, they warned against definitively drawing such a conclusion. 

Court papers filed in the case later painted a portrait of a family in turmoil. "There was not somebody running around doing hate crimes. This was a domestic violence incident," El Cajon Police Chief Jim Redman told a news conference to announce the arrest. 

San Diego County jail records show that Alawadi's husband, 48-year-old Kassim Alhimidi, was arrested by police on Thursday evening for first degree murder, and was being held without bail. According to a search warrant affidavit filed in April, a relative of Alawadi told detectives that Alawadi had "been planning on divorcing her husband and moving to the state of Texas." 

Divorce papers were found in her car. El Cajon is in the heart of East San Diego County, which is home to the second largest Iraqi community in the United States, behind Detroit. More than half of El Cajon's 100,000 residents are of Middle Eastern descent. 

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1 Comments

Unknown said…
This arrest means nothing. In a high profile case like this it is typical of Police Chiefs to arrest the husband. An open case such as this can threaten the job of the Police Chief. Arresting the husband regardless of the truth is often a way in my estimation that Police Departments use to close otherwise sticky cases. Another common case is ruling murders as suicides. A murder requires a lot of investigation. If the case is ruled as a suicide the Police can close the books on it without a second thought.

I am not against police and many officers are good men doing a difficult job. However, those in power such as police chiefs or those they answer to are often under pressure to remove sticky problems from the public eye. Closing the case with a false arrest often satisfied the police requirements, the courts and the media. Hence politics over-rides justice.

I do not know the particulars of this case but I do know of personal situations and other murders that fall into this category of beinng falsely silenced.

Neal