Tuesday August 5, 2025
Salman Haji, 20, appears in King County court on Thursday, August 1, 2025, following his extradition from Kenya. Photos: KOMO News
SEATTLE, Wash. (HOL) — The man accused of fatally shooting a 67-year-old woman in the parking lot of a Tukwila Costco during a 2024 robbery appeared in a King County courtroom Thursday, more than a year after fleeing the country.
Salman Haji, 20, was extradited from Kenya to face multiple felony charges, including first-degree murder, first-degree robbery, and attempted robbery, for his alleged role in the killing of Yuan Ming, a Chinese-American woman visiting her family. Authorities say Ming was shot while helping her sister load groceries into their car. The attack deeply resonated with immigrant and diaspora communities, including Somali Americans, closely following the case.
Haji’s co-defendant, Ilyiss Abdi, was previously arrested and charged in the same case.
According to investigators, Haji's co-defendant, Ilyiss Abdi, also 20, was behind the wheel of a stolen Porsche SUV stolen earlier that same day in Seattle. Prosecutors allege that the two men circled the Costco parking lot in Tukwila before targeting the two elderly women. When Haji tried to grab the sister’s purse, a struggle ensued. Ming leaned over from the passenger seat to assist her sibling and was shot in the chest at close range.
The sequence of events, from a carjacking in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighbourhood to the fatal shooting in Tukwila, set off a year-long international manhunt that led authorities across multiple countries. After the shooting, Haji fled the United States on Feb. 1, 2024, after being publicly named in a social media post as a suspect. Investigators believe he travelled first to Somalia, where he remained underground for several months. FBI investigators believe he initially sought refuge with extended family in Mogadishu, where he avoided detection by using aliases and moving between locations.
Over the next several months, Haji’s trail went cold. But by late 2024, agents with the FBI’s Seattle Field Office had developed intelligence suggesting he had relocated to Kenya, where Somali diaspora communities are more established and law enforcement cooperation with the U.S. is more robust. Working through the FBI’s legal attaché office in Nairobi and in coordination with Kenyan security services, U.S. agents quietly tracked Haji to a residential neighbourhood on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital.
He was arrested in Nairobi earlier this year without incident and officially taken into FBI custody on July 18, 2025, following his deportation from Kenya. Kenyan immigration authorities revoked his visa after confirming his identity and immigration violations. The extradition process was coordinated through the FBI’s Legal Attaché offices in Nairobi and The Hague, along with the DEA Nairobi Country Office, Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations, and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Haji is charged with first-degree murder and multiple felonies in connection with the 2024 fatal shooting of Yuan Ming outside a Tukwila Costco. His arrest followed a year-long international manhunt led by the FBI. Photos: KOMO News
Haji is also facing a separate federal indictment in connection with an armed carjacking committed earlier that same day, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington.
The case has received considerable attention among members of the Somali community, not only because of Haji’s Somali heritage, but also due to larger questions of justice, accountability, and media portrayal. Somali American advocacy groups have condemned the crime and also expressed concern over rising online hate speech and xenophobia directed at immigrants during the investigation.
The FBI confirmed that Haji’s arrest was part of its "Summer Heat" operation, a nationwide campaign aimed at locating and apprehending violent fugitives.
“When we have these violent criminals who threaten the safety of our community, even if they flee outside the United States, we are not giving up.,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge W. Mike Herrington. "We are dedicated to finding them and bringing them to face justice no matter where in the world they are.”
“International fugitive investigations like this one require significant coordination with domestic and international law enforcement partners as well as our Legal Attaché offices, which advance the FBI’s mission worldwide,” Herrington added.
At Thursday’s hearing, Ming’s daughter, Zoe, spoke emotionally as she opposed a motion by Haji’s defence attorneys seeking to bar media from filming the defendant’s face.
“My mother was murdered in public, and he should not be shielded from the public now,” she said. “I have the right to see the murderer of my mother, and so does the public.”
The judge ultimately denied the defence motion, allowing cameras to record the proceedings.Haji pleaded not guilty to all charges. He is being held in King County Jail on $5 million bail. Abdi, who was arrested last year in connection with another fatal shooting, remains in custody on $6 million bail.