State prosecutors have filed murder charges against a young man accused of shooting and killing Hussein Mubarak, 21, in Burlington's Old North End earlier this year.

Abdiaziz Abdhikadir, 19, is scheduled to be arraigned on one count of first-degree murder on Thursday morning, Burlington police said in a press release. Mubarak, a Somali refugee who was the first member of his family to graduate high school, was shot on Luck Street on July 7.

Abdhikadir has been in prison since July 18, when the state charged him with aggravated assault for a 2021 shooting in Colchester. Court filings in that case described Abdhikadir as a person of interest in Mubarak’s killing and said he has “extreme tendencies toward violence causing the community to be frightened for their life.”
The state is also seeking to charge Abdhikadir with eight counts of attempted murder for allegedly shooting into the Mubarak family home in February. Hussein Mubarak was incarcerated on federal drug charges at the time, but six children and two adults were inside the apartment, police said.

In the aftermath of Mubarak’s murder, the first of four in Burlington this year, more than 100 people gathered for a memorial at Roosevelt Park, in the heart of the neighborhood where he grew up.

Abdhikadir is also from a Somali refugee family and previously had ties to the Old North End.

In a press release, acting Police Chief Jon Murad and Lt. Det. Jim Trieb praised the department’s detectives for their work on the case.

Mayor Miro Weinberger said the new charges against Abdhikadir represent “important progress towards accountability, justice, and prevention of future violence."

Correction, October 27, 2022: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the charge filed against Abdhikadir in relation to a 2021 shooting.