Investigators say digital records, street cameras and vehicle registration data connected two rideshare drivers whose paths converged before a fatal shooting.
PORTLAND, Ore. — The case against a Portland rideshare driver accused of murdering another driver was built in significant part from the digital trail both men left behind, allowing investigators to trace their vehicles from Portland International Airport to a South Waterfront intersection where prosecutors say nine shots were fired.
The records described in court filings and published accounts transformed an early-morning shooting with a fleeing vehicle into a detailed chronology. Police say Anwar A. Osman, 41, had just completed an Uber trip at the airport when a blue Toyota Highlander driven by Mahmoud Said Ali began following him. Investigators used airport surveillance, street cameras, data supplied by Uber and Lyft and motor vehicle records to identify Ali, 42, as the driver of the SUV. Ali, who police say knew Osman, was arrested four days after the killing and has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon.
Both men were working in the same industry during the hours before Osman’s death. Osman had dropped a passenger at Portland International Airport at about 3:43 a.m. Aug. 4, according to accounts of the probable cause affidavit. Ali also had reportedly completed a rideshare drop-off at the airport around the same time. Investigators said video showed the blue SUV begin traveling behind Osman after he left the airport, creating the first segment of a trail police would later reconstruct across Portland.
That trail continued when Osman stopped at a 7-Eleven. Rather than simply pass the Toyota, the blue SUV waited in the parking lot, according to investigators. When Osman left, the SUV resumed following him. Police said surveillance footage showed the vehicle behind Osman through his subsequent movements toward the South Waterfront. The evidence led investigators to conclude that the SUV was not merely traveling along the same route for a short period but was trailing Osman over the course of his drive.
The two vehicles eventually reached the area of South Bancroft Street and South Macadam Avenue shortly after 4 a.m. A witness later told police he was behind them when traffic stopped at a red light. According to published descriptions of his statement, the witness saw a driver step out of the vehicle behind Osman, walk toward the Toyota’s driver-side window and then saw flashes consistent with gunfire. Cameras in the area provided investigators with another view of the confrontation.
Surveillance footage described in the court records showed the blue SUV stop behind Osman’s Toyota Avalon. A man then left the SUV, approached the Toyota and began firing into the driver’s side, investigators alleged. Authorities say nine shots were fired. The man returned to the SUV, drove around Osman’s vehicle and left. Osman’s Toyota continued moving after the shooting, rolled downhill and eventually struck a building in the 4000 block of South Macadam Avenue.
A Portland police sergeant happened to be patrolling nearby at about 4:10 a.m. and saw the crashed vehicle while dispatchers were receiving calls reporting shots. Officers approached the Toyota and found Osman unconscious with gunshot wounds. Police pulled him from the vehicle and attempted lifesaving measures, but he died at the scene. The Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office later ruled his death a homicide caused by gunfire.
The location created an immediate complication in understanding the scene. The shooting happened near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, and Osman’s car crashed nearby. Portland police emphasized early in the investigation that they had no evidence the federal facility played any role in the killing. Investigators said the apparent connection was geographic only: The shooting took place at a nearby intersection before the wounded driver’s car continued downhill and crashed.
The SUV itself supplied another link. Video showed rideshare markings on the vehicle, and investigators sought information from Lyft. State Department of Motor Vehicles records identified the blue Toyota Highlander as registered to Ali, according to the reported affidavit. Police said Ali was a Lyft driver. Together with the airport footage and the two companies’ trip information, those records allowed investigators to connect the SUV captured throughout the surveillance sequence to a named person they already knew had been at the airport when Osman was there.
Detectives spent the next several days reviewing evidence and interviewing people. Late Aug. 7, they learned Ali was in the area of the 13100 block of Northeast Glisan Street, Portland police said. The bureau called in its Special Emergency Reaction Team and Crisis Negotiation Team. At about 3:30 a.m. Aug. 8, officers arrested Ali. Homicide detectives then interviewed him and booked him into the Multnomah County Detention Center on charges of second-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon.
Law&Crime, citing the probable cause affidavit, reported that Ali acknowledged shooting Osman during his police interview. That reported statement is part of the prosecution’s account and does not replace the state’s burden to prove its case. Ali later pleaded not guilty to both charges. Police have not released a motive, and the public reports do not explain why the men, who authorities said knew each other, would have ended up in a confrontation after their nearly simultaneous airport trips.
Only after Ali’s arrest did a different part of the story become public. Reporting by The Oregonian/OregonLive, later cited by Law&Crime, said Ali and Osman were longtime friends in Portland’s Somali community. Musse Olol, president of the Somali American Council of Oregon, said Ali had spent time with Osman’s relatives as they mourned, including at a private viewing before the funeral. Ali also attended Osman’s funeral and reportedly donated to a fundraiser established for the family.
The fundraiser provides a view of the life behind the data trail. It describes Osman as a husband and father of six children whose oldest child was 16. According to the campaign, his family had moved from Egypt to Portland in hopes of building a better future, and Osman was driving for Uber to support them when he was killed. The fundraising page had collected more than $31,000 from hundreds of contributions by late September.
Uber and Lyft both responded publicly after the killing. Uber expressed condolences to Osman’s family and said it was assisting law enforcement. Lyft said it had reached out to offer support and was cooperating with investigators, while also saying the suspect had been permanently removed from its platform. The companies’ records became more than background information in the case: Investigators say they helped establish where both vehicles had been and how their routes became linked before the shooting.
The records described so far leave investigators with a detailed map of the two vehicles’ movements but no publicly stated explanation for them. Authorities say cameras and rideshare data connected Ali to the SUV that followed Osman, while Ali has denied the charges through his not-guilty pleas. What caused the encounter between two men who reportedly knew each other remains outside the public account of the case.
Author note: Last updated September 28, 2026.