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Man on FBI Most Wanted List captured for 'honor killings' of daughters after 12 years on the run
A man wanted for killing his two daughters in Irving in 2008 has been captured, the FBI and Irving Police Department announced Wednesday evening.
Author: Eline de Bruijn
Published: 7:49 PM EDT August 26, 2020
Updated: 11:31 AM EDT August 27, 2020
Note: The video above is from a 2019 story about the killings.
A man on the FBI's Most Wanted List for slaying his two daughters in "honor killings" outside an Irving hotel in 2008 has been captured, the FBI and Irving Police Department announced Wednesday evening.
Yaser Abdel Said is accused of shooting and killing his two daughters, 18-year-old Amina and 17-year-old Sarah. Investigators believe he was taking them to dinner when he shot them in the back of a taxi cab outside the Omni Hotel in Irving.
Said was taken into custody "without incident" by FBI SWAT in Justin, Texas, on Wednesday, according to an FBI release. Initially in federal custody, he will be transferred to Dallas County, the release said.
“This man brutally murdered, shot to death his two daughters in his taxi cab," Irving Police Chief Jeff Spivey said. "We have tirelessly followed every lead never losing hope that we would one day locate and arrest Yaser Said."
The FBI said they also arrested two relatives of Said in Euless for harboring a fugitive, his son, Islam Said, and his brother, Yasim Said, and they believe there are others who helped him evade capture.
“We do expect that there were others who provided aid and comfort to this fugitive for a long period of time," FBI Special Agent in Charge Matt DeSarno said.
Said has been on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted fugitive list since 2014. FBI had placed a reward for tips and believed he may have still had ties to North Texas. The FBI said he frequented diners like Denny's and IHOP.
The FBI classified the shootings as "honor killings."
In the recorded 911 call, one of the girls is heard saying her father shot her.
Police believe Yaser Said was angry they were dating boys who were non-Muslim and killed them.
It was a high-profile case and there are still many details some are discovering more than a decade later.
"He followed them everywhere and he recorded their every move,” said Ruth Trotter, a family friend, of home videos that show the father with his two teen daughters before their violent deaths.
In one of the videos, Yaser appears to be stalking his daughter Sarah at her work.
“She smiled at the customer," he says.
“Baba she has to do that. It’s part of her job,” Amina replies to her father.
“She’s in trouble,” he retorts.
Problems with their father went back years.
When they were younger, the girls told police he was sexually abusing them.
In one of the videos, he gawks at the girls as he rolls the camera and zooms in on their bodies.
The girls told people they were scared of what he might do one day.
"I knew the fear and threat was real all the time," said Ruth Trotter, whose son dated Amina. "I mean, she told us all the time that her dad would kill her."
Finally, in December 2007, their mother, Patricia, decided it was time to take her daughters and leave Said.
The girls and their mother hid in Oklahoma for a few days. But then, on New Year’s Eve 2007, Patricia went back to Yaser.
Amina begged not to go.
“Amina says she was never going back,” Trotter said.
But, Patricia insisted.
On Jan. 1, 2008, Yaser forced the girls to go with him to dinner.
Police say he drove them in a taxi cab he was borrowing from a friend to the Omni Hotel in Irving, where they say he shot his daughters.
Amina was shot twice in the chest. Sarah, the younger daughter, was in the backseat. She was shot nine times.
Sarah managed to call 911 for help. She named her father as her killer.
"My dad shot me," she told the dispatcher. "I’m dying. Stop it. Stop it.”
"You hear her last breath," Trotter said of the call. "She was fighting till the very end."
After that call, there was a frantic search for the girls, but the technology was limited at that time and the phone could not be traced.
Det. Eric Curtis believes Yaser did not want the girls dating outside the Muslim faith. It’s called an honor killing.
"I think that frustrated him and he could not handle that," Curtis said. "And ultimately that’s why he decided to kill them."
https://www.13wmaz.com/article/news/crime/man-fbi-most-wanted-list-captured-honor-killings-daughters-irving-texas-new-years/287-e628302d-bd22-4cbe-88da-34c2f6a0d259