By Mike Swift and Bruce Newman
Mercury News
Dec 31, 2011
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After summoning police to her home Friday night with a frantic call about a male intruder who had savagely attacked her and killed another woman in the house, Sagal Mohamod Sadiq was found outside the house at 1994 Johnston Ave. covered in blood, but saying she was all right.

But less than 24 hours later, the focus of the investigation turned from an unknown attacker to Sadiq herself, as the 40-year-old nurse was arrested by San Jose police on suspicion of murder. The weapon, police said, was the large, bloody machete that neighbors saw in the backyard of the Willow Glen rental Sadiq shared with another woman. Saturday afternoon, splatters of blood were still visible on the concrete behind the house, near where police recovered the machete.

Investigators refused to reveal the name of the victim or her relationship to Sadiq pending notification of next of kin, but it was clear Saturday that police were not buying the story Sadiq had told neighbors and police -- that a masked man had been menacing the house earlier Friday, before attacking later that evening and escaping into the night on foot.

Police said the motive for the homicide remains under investigation, but neighbors said they had been told by police that the victim was an elderly woman -- the mother of Sadiq's partner. The apparent victim's gray Saturn sedan, its back seat filled with stuffed animals, remained in the home's driveway Saturday afternoon.

City Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio, after talking to neighbors and other sources, said he believed the crime was a "domestic" dispute, in that the slaying did not involve a home invasion by an unknown assailant. It was San Jose's 41st homicide of 2011.

Sadiq had lived in the modest house on Johnston Avenue for about the past six months with her partner Minema Kirk, 37, who, according to her Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, is a leadership development manager at Goodwill of Silicon Valley. But neighbors said they have not seen Kirk for several weeks, and Sadiq had told them her girlfriend was on vacation in Puerto Rico.

Police declined to discuss Kirk's relationship with Sadiq, nor would they comment on Kirk's whereabouts. Attempts by this newspaper to reach Kirk on Saturday were unsuccessful.

Sadiq was booked into the Santa Clara County Jail. Her arrest brought a measure of relief to the close-knit, normally quiet neighborhood that had been rocked by Sadiq's tale to neighbors Friday about the menacing masked man.

Groups of neighbors congregated Saturday afternoon on Johnston Avenue to comfort each other and swap information -- since police were tight-lipped about the case -- about the frightening events of the previous night, when more than a dozen police cruisers converged on the neighborhood to search for what many neighbors thought was an unknown assailant.

"This is a good neighborhood," said Chuck Colburn, a neighbor who has lived on the street since 1957. "This is the first time I've ever seen anything like that."

Sadiq is a single mother who came to the United States in 1996 from Somalia, according to a profile about Sadiq on the website for John F. Kennedy University, which said that while Sadiq was working as a post-anesthesia recovery nurse in San Jose, she was studying to become a lawyer.

"They were friendly enough, but not outgoing," said Sandra Black, a next-door neighbor. "It seemed like they worked a lot."

Neighbors said they heard nothing Friday night around the apparent time of the murder, and they could recall no incidents of public fights between the couple. But several neighbors said they had noticed disturbing behavior by Sadiq recently.

Sadiq had told neighbors several weeks ago that someone had broken into the house, but had stolen only some tickets for Kirk's graduation and a few other things, leaving valuables behind. She told another neighbor that she kept a gun in a child's lunch box next to her bed. Neighbors said they believed police recovered several knives from Sadiq's Toyota Corolla. Police declined to comment.

"You could tell that something was going on there," said one neighbor, who asked not to be named. "Something wasn't right."

Early Friday evening, several neighbors said, a distraught-looking Sadiq went to several nearby neighbors' homes to tell them about the masked man. But when they suggested she call the police, she demurred.

"No, I'll just call my girlfriend's mother to come over," Sadiq told one neighbor.

Anyone with information about the case is encouraged to call San Jose police Detective Sgt. Merlin Newton or Detective Jaime Jimenez at 408-277-5283. Persons wishing to remain anonymous can call the Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-STOP (7867) or visit svcrimestoppers.org.

Source:mercurynews.com

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