PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Newly released photos from 2017 show a black SUV that helped Abdulrahman Sameer Noorah escape house arrest and flee to Saudi Arabia after he allegedly hit and killed a 15-year-old on Southeast Hawthorne.
Noorah was awaiting trial on manslaughter charges for the August 2016 crash that killed Fallon Smart. He cut off his ankle monitoring bracelet and vanished in June 2017.
The Saudi Arabian consulate paid $100,000 to bail him out of jail in September 2016.
United States Marshals have confirmed Noorah is in Saudi Arabia but it’s not clear how he got there. The US Marshals released these photos.
Eric Wahlstrom, the supervisory deputy US Marshal in Oregon, told KOIN 6 News the black GMC in the photos “is what we believe picked Noorah up in Portland near SE 106th. Noorah is still believed to be currently in Saudi Arabia.”
He added US officials with Homeland Security requested additional information about Noorah’s inbound flight arrival in Saudi Arabia, “and those requests have gone answered. We will continue to work with HSI and our Office of International Affairs in attempts to get Noorah back to the US for trial.”
The US Marshals, he told KOIN 6 News, “are still trying to determine exactly how he made it back to the kingdom and who assisted him with fleeing the US.”
The case
On August 19, 2016, Fallon Smart was crossing SE Hawthorne around 43rd Avenue when she was hit by a speeding Lexus. She died at the scene.
The driver, Abdulrahman Noorah, was traveling between 55 and 60 mph, investigators said. Noorah was allegedly passing vehicles in the center lane along Hawthorne between 46th and 43rd. Witnesses said the Lexus didn’t stop after hitting the teen.
The Lexus returned to the scene, and police arrested Noorah.
In September 2016, a report generated by the sheriff’s office recommended that Noorah not be released from custody.
“The defendant’s reckless behavior…showed absolutely no regard for the safety of the community and resulted in the tragic death of a teenage girl,” deputy Kari Kolberg wrote in her report.
Noorah’s criminal defense attorney, Ginger G. Mooney, asked the court to have the report sealed “because implicit and explicit violent threats have been made publicly and privately against” her client.
Details of the threats were not made public.
KOIN 6 News will continue to follow this story.
