Recalling some of the violence she witnessed during the civil war in Somalia during her youth in the war-torn country, Omar said that she had not seen any violence during her subsequent time in the refugee camp waiting to gain asylum in the United States. Soon after settling in Minnesota, she witnessed a shooting.
"For six years, I had the privilege of not seeing any violence until I moved to Minnesota," she told a crowd at a Gun Violence Community Conversation in Minneapolis on Thursday, the Daily Mail reported.
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"My first year in Minnesota, I both saw a person shot at Peavey Park, dead on the floor, three weeks after my father and I arrived in Minneapolis," she said. "Six months later, I watched the Minneapolis police put 38 bullets into the body of a mentally disabled Somali immigrant who didn't speak English."
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Omar and her family fled Somalia when she was 8 years old and stayed at the Dadaab refugee camp near the border of Kenya and Somalia until she received asylum in the U.S. at the age of 12, according to the outlet. They originally lived in New York and Virginia. Two years after being granted shelter, her family moved to the Twin Cities in Minnesota.
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Growing up in Somalia, she saw violence and even attended school with classmates who wielded firearms amid the internal conflict.
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"I know what that kind of violence looks like, but I was fortunate enough to flee that and seek refuge in a refugee camp for four years where I did not witness that kind of violence," she said, per the outlet.
In Minneapolis, where her town hall took place, the city recorded 52 homicide offenses last year, according to data from the city government. So far in 2022, there have been 44 recorded instances of homicide, indicating an uptick.
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Omar hailed the new bipartisan gun legislation that President Joe Biden signed into law last week during the town hall. The effort provided more funding for school security, mental health, and enhanced background checks.
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Early in the town hall, Omar made reference to the overturning of Roe v Wade by the Supreme Court saying: "We know this decision will fall the hardest on the most vulnerable, such as women who have been abused, who are victims of incest, have been raped, those who are already struggling to put food on the table."
"Thankfully, in Minnesota, abortion remains legal," she said, per the outlet.
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