The King County Prosecutor's office has charged Nyak G. Nyak with first degree robbery in a case where an Uber driver in Ballard was assaulted, beaten, and his money and car stolen on Aug. 13. The suspect is still at large.

From the Charging Documents

On 8/13/2020 Hassan S Mohamed 8/16/90 was working as an Uber driver, driving his personal vehicle, WA BNX6596, a 2016 Hyundai Elantra as reported by DOL At approximately 2330 hours Mohamed was dispatched via his Uber App to a location in the 5400 block of Seaview Av NW, which is located in the Ballard neighborhood of North Seattle, in order to provide ride services for a third party. Mohamed stated the ride was booked using a female's user profile and the ending destination was in the City of Kent. Mohamed arrived in the area of the 5400 block of Seaview Av NW and observed a white 4 door Nissan, possibly Altima, parked with female and two males outside of the vehicle. Per Mohamed, the female matched the photo of the female's Uber user profile photo used to request his ride service. One male from outside the car and 2 males seated in the back seat then approached Mohamed's vehicle. All the males exhibited signs of intoxication and had a bottle of alcohol in their possession. After a conversation regarding the 3 black males needing to wear face masks and that no alcohol was allowed, the 3 suspects entered the back seat of Mohamed's vehicle and the ride to Kent began. One of the males then attempted to get Mohamed to drive them to a different address than what was booked. Mohamed informed them that he could not do that.

Mohamed started to get suspicious of the males when he could overhear them talking about Mohamed's wallet being in the console, between the front driver and passenger seats. Mohamed pulled into the parking lot of Safeway, located at 1423 NW Market St, and asked the males to exit his vehicle or he would call the police. The black male seated in the right rear passenger seat then placed a semi-automatic handgun to Mohamed's head and stated, "Give me your money." Mohamed stated that he instinctually grabbed the handgun, and a struggle over the weapon ensued. During the struggle a shot was fired inside the vehicle, no one was stuck by the fired bullet. The black male seated in the middle of the back seat began to strike Mohamed in the right side of his head and face. The black male seated behind Mohamed exited the car and went around to the right rear passenger door area in an attempt to assist his accomplice.

Mohamed was physically pulled out and drug from the car by the two suspects, out through the right rear passenger door. Mohamed continued to struggle with the black male holding the gun, fearing that he would be killed with the gun if he let go of it. At some point Mohamed was struck in the head by one of the suspects and lost consciousness.

Mohamed was transported from the Safeway parking lot to Harborview Medical Center for further medical treatment.

Mohamad had no recollection of what occurred between being rendered unconscious and his arrival at Harborview Medical Center to receive medical treatment.

A Loss Prevention Agent for Safeway, Jevvan L Cameron, observed the assault on Mohamad by the 3 suspects and called 911 at 0001 hours on 8/14/20. Jevvan Cameron watched the suspects get back into Mohamed's vehicle, after assaulting him, and drive Mohamed's vehicle away from the scene.

While responding officers were conducting the initial investigation at the Safeway location a 911 caff was received reporting a suspicious vehicle and 3 intoxicated black males running away from the vehicle. The location was given as 4800 Phinney Av N, which is 1.2 miles from Safeway (4 minutes by car).

Officers responded to 4800 Phinney Av N and found WA BNX6596, Mohamed's vehicle, unoccupied. Witness Brendon Lehman, who saw Mohamed's vehicle being abandoned by 3 black males, stated the suspects returned to the vehicle after originally leaving it. Lehman overheard one of the black males state, 'You gotta find your phone, that's what'll get us arrested." The black males then began tossing items from the vehicle before fleeing the area on foot a second time.

Officers responded to the vehicle and recovered a spent 9 mm sheff casing on the street, directly underneath where WA BNX6596 was parked at 4800 Phinney Av N. An unfired9mm round was observed on the floorboard of the left rear passenger seat of WA BNX6596. WA BNX6596 was impounded for further investigation.

King County Certification for Determination of Probable Cause

On 8/14/20 at 0820 hours I met Mohamed in the Emergency Room of Harborview Medical Center. Mohamed had visible injuries to his face, hands and arms. Mohamed also appeared disoriented as well. Mohamed's attending nurse later informed me that Mohamed was concussed and was diagnosed with a brain bleed, a CT scan had been performed. The nurse also verified that there were no cellular phones or a wallet in Mohamed's property when he was admitted.

Mohamed informed me that he had two cellular phones, an IPhone 11 and a Samsung 8 plus, with him at the time of the robbery.

At 1056 hours I conducted a search of WA BNX6596, written consent having been provided by Mohamed. I recovered numerous items ofevidence, both for Latent Print exam and DNA exam. I also requested that the vehicle itself have a Latent Print exam conducted on it. On 8/16/20 I was notified that the latent print exam performed by the Latent Print Unit has been completed.

On 8/25/20 at 1200 hours I received an email from Certified Latent Print Examiner Rachel Forbes informing me that a print hit was obtained from an eyeglass lens recovered from the front passenger seat. The print hit was identified to the left thumb of Nyak G. Nyak (DOB 03/26/2002, AFlS# 02160622). On 9/1/20 at 1035 hours I met with Mohamed at SPD HQ and again took a videotaped statement from him, which included the reading of the montage admonition and the viewing of the prepared photomontage, Lineup 10 #6819. Mohamed positively identified photo #5, Nyak, as the suspect seated in the middle seat who was punching him in the head during the robbery.

As of 9/10/20 Nyak, and the 2 remaining unidentified suspects, are outstanding. An arrest warrant is requested for Nyak, Nyak G for the charge of Robbery First Degree.

Prepared by Detective Shayne E St John