The victim’s husband witnessed the attack after a driver approached the Cantonese-speaking couple with a story about a missing key.
GLENDALE, Ariz. — A 66-year-old woman and her husband were preparing to tour a house they might buy when a driver stopped beside them and claimed they had dropped a key at a grocery store, beginning an encounter that police say ended with the woman being robbed and fatally run over.
The June 20 killing transformed an ordinary home-viewing trip into the center of a first-degree murder case. Police arrested Ali Hcaimi, 23, later that day at a McDonald’s and said the woman’s purse, cards, cellphone and necklace were found in his Lexus. Authorities allege that Hcaimi tried to use one of her cards to buy food after leaving the residential street. He denies robbing the woman or driving over her.
The woman’s name was not included in the publicly available reports reviewed for this article. Accounts from police and prosecutors describe her largely through the final trip she made with her husband: The couple had gone to a Glendale neighborhood to look at a home “to potentially buy it,” according to language cited from the arrest affidavit. They had not yet begun the tour when the maroon Lexus pulled up.
Police said Hcaimi was the Lexus’ driver and only occupant. He allegedly told the couple that he had seen them at a nearby Fry’s store and believed they had lost a key there. The statement gave the woman a reason to step out of her vehicle and walk toward his front passenger window. Investigators said she and her husband spoke Cantonese and that a language barrier affected the exchange.
The woman lifted her purse as she looked for her keys, according to the affidavit. Police allege that Hcaimi then grabbed for the bag. She held on, and the two struggled over it through or near the passenger side of the Lexus. The encounter quickly shifted from a conversation about a supposed lost item to a fight over the property she was carrying.
Authorities said Hcaimi accelerated while clutching the purse and while the woman still had hold of it. She was dragged down and beneath the vehicle’s rear wheels. Her husband remained at the scene and witnessed the attack. A prosecutor later used stark language in court to describe the vehicle passing over her body, but the central fact presented by authorities is that she died during the alleged theft.
The husband’s presence gave police an immediate account of how the driver approached the couple and how his wife came to leave their vehicle. Investigators then looked beyond the street for recordings that could track the Lexus and its driver. Neighborhood surveillance and doorbell cameras were among the evidence authorities said they reviewed during their investigation.
Police traced Hcaimi to a McDonald’s, where he was accompanied by two juveniles. Restaurant surveillance allegedly showed him placing an order at a self-service kiosk and trying to use a card belonging to the woman. The transaction did not go through. The juveniles told officers that Hcaimi returned to the Lexus, entered the drive-thru and used cash to complete the food purchase. Authorities arrested him at the restaurant and searched the vehicle. In addition to the purse and payment cards, officers reported finding the woman’s cellphone and necklace. The recovery of those items placed property taken from the victim in the same Lexus that police allege was used during the fatal encounter. The affidavit did not suggest that the woman and Hcaimi knew one another before that day.
Hcaimi told detectives that someone else had committed the crime. He said an unidentified man asked him for a ride, threatened him with a knife and gun, removed his clothing, tied him up and put him in the trunk. Hcaimi claimed he heard the woman calling for the driver to stop and then heard the Lexus pass over her while he remained confined.
He further alleged that the stranger drove to an alley near the restaurant, cut Hcaimi’s hand, released him and threatened him into silence. Hcaimi said he did not call police because he was afraid. He told investigators that he later picked up the two juveniles and that the card used at McDonald’s had come from their parents.
Police said evidence raised problems with that explanation. Hcaimi’s mother told investigators that the cut on his hand had occurred the previous day when a mirror broke, according to the affidavit. Detectives also had the victim’s belongings from his vehicle, the restaurant recording and statements from the juveniles. Authorities have not publicly identified the alleged kidnapper described by Hcaimi, and reports reviewed for this article did not indicate that police found evidence confirming such a person existed. The investigation placed the killing within a wider allegation of robbery. Police said Hcaimi had also followed another woman home after watching her withdraw $5,000 from a bank. He is accused of taking that woman’s purse as well. Surveillance and Ring camera footage allegedly connected him to that incident, though the public reporting does not establish that a court has ruled on the evidence.
A prosecutor focused on the alleged pattern during Hcaimi’s first appearance in Maricopa County Superior Court, saying the cases involved older victims and showed a danger to the community. The judge set bail at $1.25 million in cash and required electronic monitoring as a condition of any release. Hcaimi’s charges remain allegations, and he retains the presumption of innocence.
The case also leaves much about the victim outside public view. Her name, personal history and the reasons she and her husband were searching for a home were not disclosed in the reports reviewed. What is documented is the setting: a couple arriving together at a property they were considering, a stranger’s claim about a key, and a brief interaction that authorities say became a deadly robbery. Police have not publicly alleged that the couple was followed from the grocery store. The affidavit, as described by news organizations, says only that Hcaimi claimed to have seen them there. Whether that statement was based on an actual sighting or was simply used to make the dropped-key story appear believable was not established in the available material.
The first-degree murder and robbery case remained unresolved in the public sources reviewed Sunday. No verdict or final disposition had been reported, and future proceedings will determine whether prosecutors can prove their allegations beyond a reasonable doubt.
Author note: Last updated July 19, 2026.