Saleebaan Mohamed Abdirisaaq pleaded guilty to two murder counts and is scheduled to be sentenced in November.

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — A Minnesota man has pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder after admitting that he fatally stabbed his pregnant girlfriend during an argument, killing her and their unborn child at a St. Cloud residence in September 2025.

Saleebaan Mohamed Abdirisaaq entered pleas to second-degree intentional murder and second-degree felony murder of an unborn child, according to the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office. The pleas end the question of his criminal responsibility for the deaths of 24-year-old Falus Ali and the child she was carrying, although the case will remain open until a judge imposes a sentence. Abdirisaaq is scheduled to return to court Nov. 25. Authorities have not publicly announced the sentence they will seek or described any agreement governing the punishment.

At the plea hearing, Abdirisaaq admitted that he and Ali argued at a residence in St. Cloud on Sept. 23, 2025. He said he retrieved a knife from a dishwasher and stabbed Ali multiple times. The Attorney General’s Office said the wounds included injuries to her neck, chest and arm. The admission marked a major change in the case: Details that had previously appeared as allegations in a criminal complaint became part of Abdirisaaq’s sworn acknowledgment of responsibility in court. Prosecutors said the attack was intentional.

Police were called to the residence late that night after Abdirisaaq contacted emergency dispatchers. According to accounts based on the criminal complaint, he told the dispatcher that someone had died and that he wanted to turn himself in. When asked for more information, he reportedly told authorities to come to the apartment and see what had happened. Officers arriving at the East Germain Court apartment complex found Abdirisaaq outside with his hands raised. KNSI reported that he identified himself to police and indicated that he was surrendering.

Inside the apartment, officers found Ali near the living-room couch with a knife nearby. First responders attempted to help her, and she was transported to CentraCare-St. Cloud Hospital. She was pronounced dead after arriving there. Medical personnel told investigators that Ali was about 17 weeks pregnant, according to local reports. Her unborn child also died. The criminal complaint said Ali had been stabbed 34 times, a figure reported by Law&Crime, KNSI and WJON. Authorities have described the injuries in restrained terms while identifying the extent of the assault as a central fact in the prosecution.

The couple’s 3-year-old child was inside the home during the killing, according to court records cited by local news organizations. The child was not physically injured and was later placed with relatives. The complaint described statements and gestures the child made after the attack, but those observations were part of the early investigative record rather than testimony tested at a trial. Because Abdirisaaq pleaded guilty, jurors will not be asked to consider the child’s account or determine how much weight it should receive.

Investigators also received information from Abdirisaaq’s brother while police were still processing the scene. According to reports citing the complaint, the brother contacted authorities after Abdirisaaq called him and said he had killed Ali with a knife. That report gave investigators a separate account of an admission soon after the killing. Prosecutors ultimately did not need to present the brother as a trial witness because Abdirisaaq acknowledged the killing himself during the plea proceeding.

The case also involved a documented history of court restrictions connected to Ali. Local reports said Abdirisaaq had been convicted of violating a domestic abuse no-contact order in Sherburne County and had faced a separate threats-of-violence case involving Ali in Hennepin County. He had been released under a condition that he not contact her, according to Law&Crime. Authorities have not publicly explained in detail why he was at the St. Cloud residence on the night of the killing or what steps, if any, had been taken to enforce the restrictions before the attack.

That history is legally and factually significant because Abdirisaaq was initially charged with four counts of second-degree murder, including allegations connected to an existing court order and the death of an unborn child. The guilty pleas resolve two counts: intentional murder in Ali’s death and felony murder in the death of her unborn child. Public statements from prosecutors did not explain the formal disposition of every original count, and the publicly available reports do not provide the complete terms of the plea arrangement.

The prosecution was handled by the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office after Benton County Attorney Kathleen Reuter referred the case. Minnesota’s attorney general primarily handles civil matters and ordinarily does not prosecute most local crimes. State law, however, permits the attorney general to appear in a criminal case after receiving a request from a county attorney and deciding that state involvement is appropriate. The Attorney General’s Office worked with Benton County authorities as the case moved toward the guilty pleas.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the St. Cloud Police Department assisted with the investigation and prosecution. Their work included the response to the apartment, collection of physical evidence, interviews with people connected to the case and the preparation of records later used by prosecutors. The public reports do not identify a contested forensic issue, and there will be no trial at which experts or investigators would have been required to explain the evidence to a jury.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison called the crimes shocking and said his office was holding Abdirisaaq accountable. He also expressed sympathy for Ali’s relatives, friends and others affected by the deaths. Ellison said the case reflected cooperation between his office and law enforcement agencies across the state. His statement was issued after the guilty pleas, when Abdirisaaq’s legal responsibility had been established but before the court determined the sentence.

The plea proceeding narrows the remaining legal questions. A sentencing judge may consider the offenses of conviction, applicable Minnesota sentencing rules, any agreement reached by the parties and information presented by prosecutors, defense lawyers or people affected by the crime. The available reports do not state whether Ali’s relatives plan to provide victim-impact statements, whether the defense will request a particular sentence or whether the two counts could result in concurrent or consecutive prison terms. Those matters remain for the sentencing process. Abdirisaaq remained subject to the court’s authority after entering the pleas. The case is now scheduled to move from a determination of guilt to punishment, with sentencing set for Nov. 25, 2026. Until the judge issues the sentence and any related orders, the final length and structure of Abdirisaaq’s imprisonment will remain unresolved.

Author note: Last updated August 5, 2026.