Officers found a woman and two young boys dead after a caller raised concern about the home.
CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. — A welfare check at an Ellen Drive home led police to the bodies of a mother and two young boys, then into a wider murder case tied to a fatal Buffalo store shooting.
Cheektowaga police found 26-year-old Aaisha Abdulla and two children, ages 4 and 3, dead inside the home at about 3:30 p.m. June 1. Prosecutors say Abdulla’s husband, Saleh Q. Mohamed, 29, intentionally caused their deaths and also killed 43-year-old Shukri Muthana at a Buffalo store earlier that afternoon. Mohamed has been indicted on three counts of first-degree murder and four counts of second-degree murder. He remains held without bail and is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
The welfare check began with officers at the door and no response from inside. Cheektowaga Police Chief Brian Coons said officers could not get anyone to answer. “No one was answering the door at the house,” Coons said. “He arrived shortly thereafter.” The person who arrived, police said, was Mohamed. Officers took him into custody after he returned to the scene. Authorities have not publicly named the person who requested the welfare check or said exactly what concern led to the 911 call. That unanswered question remains central to the timeline because the family was found after the earlier Buffalo shooting, not before it.
Inside the home, police found Abdulla and the couple’s two sons dead. Erie County District Attorney Michael J. Keane said the victims were shot. Local reporting identified the boys as Youssef and Saif, and reported that Youssef had been a pre-K student at Maryvale. Prosecutors publicly identified the children by age rather than by name. Officials have not released where in the house the bodies were found, how long they had been dead or whether anyone else had been inside the home before police arrived. Coons said Cheektowaga officers had not previously responded to the residence, making the 911 call the department’s first known contact with the family.
The suburban scene was not the first shooting police handled that day. At about 2:38 p.m., Buffalo officers responded to a store on the 1000 block of Grant Street near Military Road. There, they found Muthana, a Lackawanna resident and store clerk, dead after a reported shooting. The store killing and the family deaths were first handled by different departments, but investigators soon began comparing information. Keane later said the two cases were connected. “They’re definitely connected,” he said. “The defendant committed both incidents.” Officials have not publicly explained why Muthana was targeted or whether he had a personal or business relationship with Mohamed.
Police said Mohamed was arrested after he returned to the Cheektowaga home. A neighbor told local reporters she heard what sounded like six or seven pops, then silence, then screams. She described the sound as similar to a nail gun. Another account from the street placed the arrest in a front yard. Authorities have not released arrest video or a full incident report. They also have not said whether Mohamed had the alleged weapon with him when officers detained him. The public record shows only that the arrest happened quickly after officers arrived for the welfare check and that Mohamed was later held without bail.
The weapon became part of the public account at the first briefings. Keane and Coons said the shootings involved a 9 mm handgun. Keane said Mohamed had a permit and a 9 mm pistol listed on it. “He does have a firearm on the permit,” Keane said. “It’s a 9 millimeter pistol, handgun.” Police have not released a complete forensic summary. They have not said whether shell casings, surveillance footage, fingerprints or gunshot residue testing will be key parts of the case. Such evidence often becomes public only through court filings, suppression hearings or trial testimony, and the prosecution has not laid out its proof in full.
The first charges were filed in separate courts because the deaths happened in separate places. Mohamed was arraigned late June 1 in Cheektowaga Town Court before Justice John J. Wanat on one count of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree murder related to Abdulla and the children. On June 2, he was arraigned in Buffalo City Court before Judge Erin Hart on one count of second-degree murder in the store clerk’s death. Prosecutors said at that time that additional charges could follow. On June 15, the Erie County District Attorney’s Office announced that a grand jury had indicted Mohamed on three first-degree murder counts and four second-degree murder counts.
The higher-court indictment shifted the case from the immediate emergency response to a longer legal process. State Supreme Court Justice Deborah A. Haendiges handled the June 15 arraignment. Prosecutors Justin H. Caldwell and Frank A. Strano of the Homicide Bureau are assigned to the case, with Deputy District Attorney Eugene T. Partridge III assisting. The district attorney’s office also credited Cheektowaga police and Buffalo police for the investigation. If Mohamed is convicted of the highest counts, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole. No trial date has been announced.
Community reaction has centered on the children, the family home and the unexplained path between the two scenes. Dr. Khalid Qazi, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said people were trying to come to terms with the deaths. He called the case an “unbelievably sad situation.” Neighbors described a quiet street that was suddenly filled with officers and screams. Court observers also showed emotion. At a June 5 appearance, a man shouted as Mohamed was brought before a judge and was removed by court officers. The moment underscored how the case had moved from a residential block into public courtrooms while many facts remained unknown.
Investigators have not released a motive, and prosecutors have not said what happened in the hours before the Grant Street shooting. They have not publicly described Mohamed’s movements before 2:38 p.m., what he allegedly did between the Buffalo shooting and the welfare check, or why he returned to Ellen Drive while officers were there. The indictment states the charges, but the fuller account will depend on evidence that has not yet been presented in open court. For now, the public timeline begins with a store shooting, continues with a welfare check and ends with a pending murder prosecution.
Mohamed’s next scheduled court appearance is a pretrial conference on July 8, 2026, at 2 p.m. He remains jailed without bail while prosecutors and defense counsel prepare for the next stage of the case.
Author note: Last updated July 6, 2026.