Mother was caught escaping to Canada after ‘attempting to strangle daughter, 17, in an honor killing’
- Got a story? Email [email protected]
A mother was arrested at the border while fleeing to Canada after she allegedly tried to strangle her daughter in an ‘honor killing’.
Zahraa Subhi Mohsin Ali, 40, was charged with attempted murder, kidnapping, and assault after the attack on October 18, alongside her husband Ihsan Ali, 44.
The girl, 17, who was not named, ran away from home to Timberline High School in Lacey, Washington, after her parents tried to put her on a plane to Iraq.
‘Her father had recently been threatening her with honor killing for refusing an arranged marriage with an older man in another country,’ the girl told police, according to court documents.
Shocking video allegedly showed Ihsan on the ground with his daughter in a chokehold outside the school, while classmates desperately tried to free her.
After they fought him off, Zahraa allegedly tried to finish the job but was stopped by the girl’s 16-year-old boyfriend and classmates.
Ihsan was arrested on the spot, but Zahraa was free for another four days until she was detained by customs officers trying to cross into Canada.
Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office deputy Tawsha Dykstra wrote in her report that she was dispatched to the border at 8.38pm on October 22 to arrest Zahraa on a domestic assault warrant.
Shocking video allegedly showed Ihsan Ali, 44, on the ground with his daughter in a chokehold, while classmates desperately tried to free her
Zahraa was taken into custody without incident and booked into the Whatcom County Jail until Lacey Police arrived to pick her up.
Victor Barnes, the father of the girl’s boyfriend, told DailyMail.com that Zahraa fled to the border after prosecutors moved to charge her along with Ihsan.
He claimed Zahraa was in court with her eldest daughter, Haneen Ali, 21, at Ihsan’s arraignment when prosecutors said they believed she was also a threat and were seeking an arrest warrant.
‘The second she hears that, she runs out the courtroom,’ said Barnes, adding that Haneen text her with updates as the hearing continued.
Barnes claimed Zahraa drove her youngest children, two boys aged five and three, into Canada and dropped them off with an uncle who lived there.
She then reportedly returned to Washington before trying to cross into Canada a second time on the night of October 22.
During this time, police compiled statements from the girl, her boyfriend, and other witnesses and issued an arrest warrant flagging her passport.
Barnes said the two older sisters were also with their uncle in Canada, but he wasn’t sure when or how they got there.
‘From what we know, this uncle is a lot [stricter] than her dad is, as far as what he believes… So prayers up for these kids,’ he said.
Victor Barnes (pictured), the father of the girl’s boyfriend, explained how the attack unfolded – and the events before it – as told to him by his son
Barnes said the girl told him earlier in year that she had a third sister who died from cancer after her parents moved from Arizona to Washington.
‘When they moved here, they stopped giving her medical treatment and pretty much let her die on the couch,’ he said.
Barnes explained that his son started dating the girl in February and her family kept it a secret from her father, who was often out of town running his business.
‘He’s an abusive man. So they just didn’t tell him because… they may think he’ll fly off the handle and do something crazy like he did,’ he said.
He said his wife JeTe Drake tried to arrange a meeting with Zahraa months earlier to discuss their children’s relationship, but phone conversations degenerated into ‘a lot of yelling’ as Haneen tried to translate.
They heard nothing until September 16 when Zahraa appeared outside the school and Barnes claimed ‘tried to kidnap his son’.
He said CCTV showed Zahraa grab the teen and try to drag him away with her, but he was stronger than her so after a couple of steps he pulled his arm away and told her not to touch him.
Barnes claimed Zahraa called his son a ‘thug and a thief’ but the rest of her yelling was unintelligible.
Timberline High sent her a letter the next day advising that as she was seen ‘grabbing and yelling at’ a student, she would be charged with trespassing if she came to the school again.
Barnes said he wanted to press charges, but his son ‘didn’t want me to because he was scared that the girl was gonna get in more trouble’.
He gave his son an ultimatum: He would press charges, or he would discuss the issue with the girl’s father to give him a chance to address it first.
‘I got the dad’s number, and I told him, I would like to give you the respect as a man to let you know what’s going on in your house,’ Barnes said.
‘Your wife went to the school trying to kidnap our son, she put hands on him, tried to grab him, and that’s not OK. So we’re thinking about pressing charges.’
Barnes said Ihsan was ‘more confused than angry’ at the revelation of his daughter’s secret relationship.
‘He was like, this is a lot of information that you’re giving me. I don’t know how to quite digest it. Let me talk to my family and figure out what’s going on,’ he said.
Barnes said he called back about 20 minutes later, and Ihsan tried to play the incident off as a misunderstanding, saying they should just keep the teens away from each other.
Barnes said the girl later told him that Ihsan said ‘I told you you shouldn’t be dating those n****rs’ after he hung up the call.
Ihsan responded to the situation by pulling the girl out of school, smashing her phone so they couldn’t communicate, and buying plane tickets to Iraq.
‘So they wanted to seclude her and during this period of time, that’s when he was threatening to kill her and was starving her and crazy, crazy stuff,’ Barnes claimed.
The girl outlined shocking alleged abuse at the hands of her father in an interview with police days after the attack, and claimed one of her brothers, who is autistic, was treated even worse.
Barnes said his son didn’t see or hear from the girl until she showed up at the school on October 18, asking for help.
After speaking with Ihsan, Barnes got a protective order against Zahraa on his son’s behalf, and then got one against Ihsan after the girl was attacked.
‘At the end of the school day, the school made my child responsible for this girl’s safety by asking him to help this girl get on the bus,’ he wrote in the application.
‘They continued to put this girl’s family situation in the lap of my child as if he’s an adult and understands the gravity of everything.’
Barnes said his son was still not doing well mentally after he was allegedly punched in the face by Ihsan, then had to watch his girlfriend almost be murdered in front of him as he desperately tried to save her.
‘He’s just trying to keep it together… trying to not feel so tensed up all the time,’ he said, noting he had a breakdown in late November.
The alleged attack was outside Timberline High School in Lacey, Washington
On the morning of October 18, he said the girl’s parents showed up at his house with police demanding to know where she was.
Barnes told them she was wasn’t there and would presumably be at the school, then texted his son to warn him.
‘She runs away from home because they wanted to fly her out of the country that day – she’s afraid,’ he said.
‘She shows up at the school and my son’s class and the teacher helps her because she looks very malnourished.’
Barnes said school officials took her to a room and eventually found a safe place for her to go, but did not offer to help her get there.
‘They know she’s in danger, they know her circumstances and situation, but they insist for her to take public transportation to get to her safe destination – without any type of chaperone,’ he said.
The girl and her boyfriend walked to the bus stop at the front of the school and she spotted her father’s pickup truck outside.
Suddenly, Ishan emerged from the truck and confronted them, yelling at his daughter in Arabic.
Barnes said another student, who spoke Arabic, yelled back, ‘She doesn’t want to go back with you. Leave her alone.’
‘He didn’t like what the kid said, he loses his mind and punches my son in the face,’ Barnes alleged.
Court documents explained that another student told police the boyfriend stood in front of her and was sent ‘flying onto the concrete’ when he was punched.
Ishan allegedly put his daughter in a headlock and tried to choke her to death, saying, ‘It’s not right… you are not supposed to do this’, she told police.
Barnes said his son ‘starts to see her eyes roll back, and her arms start flailing’ before she went limp and unconscious as he tried to save her.
Other students described similar horrifying scenes to police, and her boyfriend told them he thought she was going to die.
Her boyfriend managed to subdue him, along with other students, by repeatedly punching Ishan in the head until he was dazed and let go, prosecutors said.
Josh Wagner, who was driving by the school and stopped to break up what he thought was a school fight, then restrained Ishan until police arrived about 2.20pm.
Zahraa then allegedly entered the fray and also tried to choke her daughter to death, but was separated by the growing group of kids.
‘Her other daughter (Haneen), which is the girl’s older sister, is trying to fight the other kids away,’ Barnes said, which the girl also told police.
‘But it’s too many other kids and mom isn’t as strong as that, so they eventually grab the girl away from mom.’
The girl told police she fled inside with her boyfriend yelling, ‘My dad was trying to kill me’ as Zahraa allegedly pursued her to the school doors, but wasn’t let in.
Josh Wagner (pictured), who was driving by the school and stopped to break up what he thought was a school fight, restrained Ihsan until police arrived
Security footage showed Zahraa chasing after the teens as they ran inside, before she was blocked from following them further than the front office, police said.
After Zahraa tried to get through other entrances, the principal yelled at her to leave and put the school on lockdown.
The boyfriend suffered a boxer’s fracture as he tried to get Ishan off his girlfriend, which is now in a cast. The girl was taken to Providence St Peter Hospital in Olympia for treatment and a strangulation exam.
Police said they saw scratches on her neck and she complained of neck, throat, and jaw pain, and had difficulty swallowing.
‘She believes she lost consciousness three to four times during the incident,’ court documents alleged, adding that at one point she woke up with dirt pressed into her face.
‘[The girl] stated that she thought she was going to die.’
Medical staff at the hospital reported she also suffered burst blood vessels in her eyes, and abrasions to her shoulders.
Ihsan was not initially charged with attempted murder, and released from jail on October 24 on just a $150,000 bond after a hearing in Thurston County Superior Court before Judge John Skinder.
Zahraa faced a different judge to her husband, Judge Christopher Lanese, on the same day, but she was charged with attempted murder and held on $500,000 bail.
Almost two weeks after his release, on November 5, second-degree attempted murder was finally added to Ihsan’s charges.
Ihsan was re-arrested and his bail raised to $1 million, which was too much for him to pay. He remains in jail, while Zahraa’s bond was unchanged.
Why Ihsan wasn’t initially charged with attempted murder, when his wife was, is unclear. This was despite police reports and court documents laying out his alleged near-deadly attack in detail.
The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office, which runs the jail, refused to release mugshots of Ihsan and Zahraa, citing state law.
The parents faced different judges in Thurston County Superior Court. Ihsan was released on a $150,000 bond by Judge John Skinder (left), and Zahraa stayed behind bars after Judge Christopher Lanese (right) set her bail at $500,000
Timberline High School sent a message to parents that read: ‘After school today, there was an altercation near campus that required response from law enforcement.
‘We were put on lockdown for a brief period of time to maintain safety and order on campus. Upon instructions from Lacey PD, the lockdown was lifted.’
The school said it took student and staff safety extremely seriously, in a statement about Barnes’ concerns.
‘When unique situations arise, we work with concerned parties to provide a safe learning environment, and we are doing so in this case,’ it said.
‘As standard practice, including in this instance, we conduct a debrief after situations relating to student safety and consider whether there are actions we can take to improve in the future.’
Ihsan was charged with second-degree attempted murder, first-degree attempted kidnapping, second-degree attempted kidnapping, second-degree domestic assault, and fourth-degree assault.
Zahraa was charged with second-degree attempted murder first-degree attempted kidnapping, second-degree attempted kidnapping, second-degree domestic assault, and second-degree burglary.
