RICHARDSON, Texas - An Ethiopian family is mourning the loss of their youngest child police say was killed by the man who promised to love her.
Detectives say Hanan Seid was killed by her husband, Ahmed Mehamded Abdela, on Sunday. They say he shot her multiple times in the middle of the day in the parking lot of her Richardson apartment complex. She had moved there trying to escape her husband.
Family and friends say Abdela has threatened his wife with both a gun and a knife in the past six months when the couple became separated. While the 26-year-old mother of two was trying to get away, they never thought he'd make good on such a deadly domestic violence.
Police say it happened as Seid and a friend returned to her apartment. Abdela was lurking in the parking lot to carry out what he planned out in his mind. Sergeant Kevin Perlich says the friend she was with returned to his car.
"He heard this popping sound, which was gunshots. He looks back and sees the husband standing over top of the wife with a gun in his hand," said Perlich. "About an hour after the shooting, Dallas police got a 911 call from Abdela. He was at this Starbucks on Arapaho. He calmly told them he killed his wife and wanted to turn himself in."
Seid was a nurse at Parkland Hospital. She left behind a 3-year-old girl and an 18-month-old girl.
Furdows Yusuf is Seid's aunt. She advocates for domestic violence victims in Atlanta and says the Muslim community in North Texas must not act as if domestic violence does not exist.
"She didn't get a chance to defend herself or call for help. And the entire eight bullets went on her," Yusuf said. "No one deserves that, no one. And all parents: please listen to your children. Everything they tell you, please take it serious."
Abdela is charged with murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and is being held on a $500,000 bond.