A teenage suspect was behind bars Tuesday in connection with the 7-month-old slaying of another young man in a Southcrest-area neighborhood.
Raheem Malik Meals, 18, was arrested Friday on suspicion of murdering 20-year-old Ismail Abouabid on Jan. 15, according to San Diego police.
Patrol officers responding to a report of a possible traffic accident in the 4000 block of Boston Avenue shortly before noon that day found Abouabid mortally wounded behind the wheel of a parked vehicle, bleeding from the head, said Lt. Matt Dobbs.
Abouabid, who had recently relocated to San Diego from Erie, Pennsylvania, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Witnesses told investigators three male teenagers had been with the victim just prior to his death and walked off toward a nearby park just before he was found.
Police initially reported that Abouabid had been shot to death but later backed off from those statements.
“The mechanism for the (victim’s) injury is not being released at this time,” Dobbs said Tuesday.
The lieutenant also declined to disclose a suspected motive for the alleged slaying or reveal what led investigators to identify Meals as a suspect in the case.
— City News Service