Twenty-year-old Hamza Abdirashiid Said and eighteen-year-old Amiir Mawlid Ali were arrested in Minnesota and face machine gun charges following shootings at two different high school graduations.
KSTP reported that Said was arrested May 30, 2025, after allegedly “[shooting] two victims outside Wayzata High School’s graduation” and Ali was arrested June 6, 2025, after shots were fired at the Burnsville High School graduation.
Said and Ali each allegedly had a Glock pistol with a “Glock switch” in their possession when questioned by police. Such a switch is used to convert a semiautomatic Glock handgun into a fully automatic firearm.
The Unites States Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota pointed to “recorded jail calls” in which Ali allegedly “said that, upon his release, he would need a ‘button,’ a slang term for a switch or machinegun conversion device.”
“High school graduation ceremonies are a rite of passage. A time for friends and family to come together to celebrate one of life’s major milestones. To bring machineguns and violence to such a ceremony is immoral and shameful,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson said. “On behalf of all Minnesotans, I want to express a sense of moral outrage at these crimes and assure the public that the perpetrators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at
