Anwar Osman left six children after his death, while a longtime friend who joined the family’s mourning now faces second-degree murder charges.
PORTLAND, Ore. — When Kaltumo Osman addressed a Portland courtroom after her husband’s killing, she focused on the six children he left behind and asked for justice. Across the room was a man described as her husband’s longtime friend, someone who had reportedly mourned with the family before police arrested him on a murder charge.
The family connection has become one of the most difficult-to-reconcile facts surrounding the death of 41-year-old Anwar A. Osman. Mahmoud Said Ali, 42, is accused of following Osman from Portland International Airport and shooting him at a South Waterfront traffic light early Aug. 4. Yet community reporting says that before his arrest, Ali gathered with Osman’s relatives for a private viewing of the body, attended the funeral and donated to a GoFundMe established for the widow and children. Ali has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon, and authorities have not announced a motive.
The public fundraiser created after Osman’s death describes the loss from the family’s perspective rather than through court records. It says Osman was the father of six young children and that the oldest was 16. The family had moved from Egypt to Portland looking for a better future, according to the campaign, and Osman was working as an Uber driver to provide for them. The organizer appealed for help with the financial burden left by his death. By late September, the fundraiser showed more than $31,000 contributed by hundreds of donors.
Among those who reportedly participated in the community’s mourning was Ali. Musse Olol, president of the Somali American Council of Oregon, told The Oregonian/OregonLive that Osman and Ali had been longtime friends and members of Portland’s Somali community. According to that account, Ali joined relatives at a private gathering where Osman’s body was viewed before the funeral. He later attended the funeral and contributed to the fundraising effort. Police have not alleged that those acts were part of the killing, and no public record reviewed for this article explains why Ali remained close to the family after Osman’s death.
The relationship also complicates what otherwise reads in investigative records as a carefully documented sequence between two vehicles. Portland police publicly said only that Ali and Osman were known to each other. That fact emerged after detectives identified Ali as a suspect during the four days following the shooting. The more specific description of a longstanding friendship came from community reporting. Authorities have not said whether the friendship had recently changed, whether the men had argued or whether investigators believe any personal dispute preceded the encounter.
Osman’s final work shift began as an ordinary overnight stretch for a rideshare driver. Investigators determined that he had taken a passenger to Portland International Airport and completed the trip at about 3:43 a.m. Ali, also a rideshare driver, reportedly dropped off a passenger there around the same time. Surveillance video and company data later became crucial to the homicide investigation because police say a blue Toyota Highlander associated with Ali started following Osman after the two men left the airport area.
Authorities say the following continued when Osman stopped at a 7-Eleven. The Highlander remained in the parking lot while Osman was there and resumed traveling behind him after he left, according to accounts of the probable cause affidavit. Cameras along the route recorded the vehicles during the trip. Investigators characterized the SUV as trailing Osman through his travels toward the South Waterfront, where both vehicles eventually stopped near South Bancroft Street and South Macadam Avenue.
A witness driving behind the two vehicles later told police that he saw the driver of the rear vehicle step out at a red light, walk to the driver’s side of the car ahead and then saw muzzle flashes. Nearby surveillance video gave investigators additional footage. Court-document accounts say the video showed a man leave the blue SUV, walk to Osman’s Toyota Avalon and fire repeatedly before returning to the SUV. Investigators allege nine shots were fired.
Osman’s car did not remain at the light. After the gunfire, the Toyota rolled down the hill and crashed into a building in the 4000 block of South Macadam Avenue. At about 4:10 a.m., a Portland police sergeant patrolling the area saw the crash while 911 calls were coming in about shots. Officers found Osman unconscious with gunshot wounds and attempted to save him, but he died at the scene. The Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office determined that his death was a homicide caused by gunfire.
The crash happened near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, a location that initially risked creating a false impression about the reason for the violence. Police said from the beginning that they had found no indication the shooting was connected to ICE. Investigators instead focused on the vehicles, surveillance cameras and the two rideshare drivers’ movements. The federal facility was near where the shooting and crash occurred, but police said its presence appeared incidental.
The blue SUV helped lead detectives to Ali. Surveillance footage showed rideshare markings, investigators said, and information obtained from Lyft was combined with Department of Motor Vehicles records. The Toyota Highlander was registered to Ali, according to published descriptions of the court documents. Lyft information also supported investigators’ conclusion that Ali had been working as a driver near the same time and place as Osman. Police then spent several days analyzing the evidence, interviewing witnesses and pursuing leads.
Late Aug. 7, homicide detectives learned that Ali was in northeast Portland. The Police Bureau deployed its Special Emergency Reaction Team with help from crisis negotiators, and Ali was arrested at about 3:30 a.m. Aug. 8 near the 13100 block of Northeast Glisan Street. Detectives interviewed him before booking him into the Multnomah County Detention Center. Law&Crime, describing the probable cause affidavit, reported that Ali acknowledged shooting Osman during that interview. The statement is an allegation within the prosecution’s case and will be subject to the court process.
Ali was later charged with second-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon. He pleaded not guilty. At an August court appearance, Kaltumo Osman spoke through an interpreter about the impact on the family, telling the court in substance that she wanted justice for herself and the six children who had lost their father. The proceeding shifted public attention from the mechanics of the police investigation back to the people who had been depending on Osman before the early-morning shooting.
The unexplained relationship between the two men remains a major gap. Police say they knew one another. Community leaders describe them as longtime friends. Investigators say Ali’s vehicle followed Osman after the men separately completed airport rideshare trips. Yet no verified public account has established what prompted that alleged pursuit. Authorities have not released evidence of a quarrel, financial dispute or other cause, and responsible reporting cannot supply one in the absence of evidence.
Beyond the criminal case, Osman’s death continues to be measured by what his family lost. His widow has asked the court for justice, and the fundraiser created after his death describes six children left without their father and financial provider. Whatever evidence is presented as the prosecution moves forward, those consequences are already fixed for a family that had expected Osman to return home from an overnight driving shift.
Author note: Last updated September 28, 2026.