A clerk died on Grant Street before officers found a woman and two children dead in Cheektowaga.
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The first call came from a store on Grant Street, where police found a 43-year-old clerk shot dead before a separate 911 call led officers to a Cheektowaga home and three more victims.
Prosecutors say Saleh Q. Mohamed, 29, of Cheektowaga, killed Shukri Muthana of Lackawanna at a Buffalo store on June 1, then intentionally caused the deaths of his wife, Aaisha Abdulla, 26, and their two sons, ages 4 and 3, at their Ellen Drive home. The case is now in State Supreme Court after a grand jury indictment charged Mohamed with three counts of first-degree murder and four counts of second-degree murder. Mohamed is held without bail and is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
The Buffalo scene unfolded at about 2:38 p.m. at a store on the 1000 block of Grant Street near Military Road. Police arrived for a reported shooting and found Muthana dead. Local officials identified him as a store clerk. The business sat in a busy section of the city, where Grant Street carries neighborhood traffic and small shops sit near residential blocks. Officers rendered aid at the scene, but Muthana died there. At that point, the public case appeared to be a single homicide in Buffalo. Investigators had not yet disclosed a motive, a dispute or a relationship between the victim and the man who would later be charged.
While Buffalo police were handling that shooting, Cheektowaga police received a separate 911 call involving a home on Ellen Drive. Officers arrived at about 3:30 p.m. and found Abdulla and two boys dead inside the residence. District Attorney Michael J. Keane said the family members were all shot. He later described the Buffalo and Cheektowaga killings as linked by the defendant. “They’re definitely connected,” Keane said. “The defendant committed both incidents.” Authorities have said the victims and Mohamed were from the same Yemeni community, but they have not said whether Muthana knew Mohamed personally or what may have led to the store shooting.
Mohamed’s return to Ellen Drive became a key moment in the police response. Cheektowaga Police Chief Brian Coons said officers were at the home for a welfare check and had no answer at the door. “No one was answering the door at the house,” Coons said. “He arrived shortly thereafter.” Police said Mohamed was taken into custody after returning to the scene. A neighbor told local reporters she heard several sounds like pops, then quiet, then screaming. She said police tackled Mohamed in a front yard. Authorities have not released body camera video or a full arrest report that would show exactly how the arrest unfolded.
The indictment filed two weeks later placed the alleged Buffalo killing and the family deaths in one prosecution. On June 15, Mohamed was arraigned before State Supreme Court Justice Deborah A. Haendiges. Prosecutors charged him with three counts of murder in the first degree and four counts of murder in the second degree, all Class A-I felonies. The first-degree murder counts reflect the severity prosecutors attached to the case, including the deaths of multiple people. The district attorney’s office said Mohamed faces life in prison without parole if convicted of the highest counts. No plea details beyond the arraignment were announced in the public update.
The early arraignments showed how the case crossed municipal lines before it reached higher court. Late on June 1, Mohamed appeared before Cheektowaga Town Court Justice John J. Wanat on charges tied to his wife and children. On June 2, he appeared before Buffalo City Court Judge Erin Hart on a second-degree murder count tied to Muthana. Prosecutors said at that point that more charges could be filed. By June 5, courtroom references to grand jury action signaled that the case was moving out of the local courts. On June 15, the district attorney’s office announced the indictment and the new court schedule.
Police and prosecutors have given only limited information about the weapon. Keane said Mohamed had a valid permit and a 9 mm pistol listed on it. “He does have a firearm on the permit,” Keane said. “It’s a 9 millimeter pistol, handgun.” Coons said police had no prior history at the Cheektowaga home. The chief’s statement left the case without the kind of earlier domestic calls that sometimes appear in family homicide investigations. Officials have not publicly released whether the same weapon was recovered, where it was found or whether ballistics testing has been completed. Those matters may become part of court evidence.
The deaths touched two communities at once. In Buffalo, Muthana’s killing placed a working clerk at the start of the alleged chain of violence. In Cheektowaga, the deaths of Abdulla and the two boys turned the case into a family homicide. WKBW reported that the boys were named Youssef and Saif and that Youssef attended pre-K at Maryvale. Prosecutors did not identify the children by name in their indictment announcement. Officials often withhold children’s names in public releases, especially early in violent crime cases. The contrast between the public store and the private home gave investigators two very different scenes to process.
The motive remains unknown publicly. Keane said investigators were still working through the connection between the cases, and officials did not say what occurred before the first shooting on Grant Street. They also did not say why a family member or caller requested the welfare check at the Ellen Drive home. No criminal record was reported for Mohamed, and Coons said the Cheektowaga department had not previously dealt with the household. Those facts sharpened questions about what happened before 2:38 p.m. on June 1, but police have not filled in the earlier hours in public statements.
The next legal step is a pretrial conference set for July 8, 2026, at 2 p.m. Mohamed remains in custody without bail as prosecutors prepare the case for State Supreme Court. Investigators from Buffalo and Cheektowaga continue to support the homicide prosecution.
Author note: Last updated July 6, 2026.