Murder conviction in 2022

A Michigan man has been convicted of murdering a man near Santa Monica Beach in 2022.

According to the Santa Monica Police Department, Mohamed Abou-Arabi was convicted in September and will be sentenced in December for killing a man near Lot 1 North, near the pier.

On November 2, police were called to the scene when a parking attendant noticed a male subject lying motionless in the driver's seat and possibly bleeding.

Officers found the vehicle at the western end of the parking lot overlooking the beach. The person in the vehicle was apparently seriously injured in a knife attack and was confirmed dead by responding firefighters.

Forensic specialists responded to the scene and collected hundreds of DNA swabs and latent fingerprints, as well as over a thousand photographs. SMPD detectives quickly learned that the victim was a resident of Dearborn, Michigan, who had recently purchased the vehicle from a private individual in Southern California.

Based on evidence collected from the vehicle and other investigative tools, the murder suspect was identified as Mohamed Abou-Arabi of Dearborn (DOB: 01/22/2000). The LA County District Attorney's Office filed a single count of murder with an accessory after the fact for using a knife to commit the fatal attack. An arrest warrant was subsequently issued for Abou-Arabi.

SMPD said that with critical assistance from Dearborn Police, SMPD was able to locate Abou-Arabi's movements from California back to Michigan following the attack. In January 2023, SMPD detectives flew to Michigan and arrested Abou-Arabi for murder. He was booked into the Santa Monica Jail on January 18, 2023 and has been in the custody of LA County since then.

At the trial in September 2024, Abou-Arabi was found guilty of first-degree murder. He will be sentenced in December.

Abou-Arabi has no prior arrests or convictions in California. He has been arrested twice on gun charges in Michigan. Abou-Arabi refused to give a motive during the investigation and trial.

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