Overview
- Amiir Mawlid Ali’s conviction, reached Thursday, carries a maximum 10-year sentence with a date for sentencing still to be set.
- Prosecutors said the case began June 3, 2025, when Minneapolis police stopped a car near 27th Street East and 18th Avenue South as Ali rode to a high school graduation and tried to run before officers found a Glock with a switch and a large magazine under his seat.
- A switch is a small device that makes a semi-automatic pistol fire continuously like a machine gun, and a firearms expert testified the weapon in this case fired 15 shots in two seconds as loaded with a 33-round magazine.
- Jail records show Hennepin County released Ali without charges on June 5, 2025, after local prosecutors deferred the case pending forensic testing, and police arrested him the next day at Burnsville High School’s graduation after reports of shots fired.
- Accounts differ on whether he was charged in the Burnsville incident, with CBS reporting Dakota County filed drive-by and assault counts as KSTP reported no such charges, while DOJ and the FBI said they will keep pursuing cases involving illegal switches.