Dental office shooting suspect denied bail
EL CAJON, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) — The man accused of killing a dentist in El Cajon and shooting two others last Thursday was arraigned in an El Cajon courtroom Tuesday.
Twenty-nine-year-old Mohammad Abdulkareem will remain in jail after the judge denied bail. The judge ordered the media not to show his face.
“Over the course of about a minute, he fired no less than 23 rounds in multiple volleys,” said Deputy District Attorney John Philpott.
The shooting happened Thursday at the family-owned Smile Plus Dentistry and Orthodontics on North Magnolia Avenue in El Cajon.
Twenty-eight-year-old Benjamin Harouni worked there alongside his father. He was killed during the shooting.
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Harouni was fatally shot multiple times in the torso, which appeared to happen while he was hiding behind a closed door.
Authorities said an office manager was hit multiple times and a female employee was hit in one leg. They said the bullet traveled through her leg and into her other leg.
According to family and friends who spoke in the courtroom, Harouni was a “bright light,” full of hope and good deeds.
His mother, Hilda, was surrounded Tuesday by Harouni’s father and younger brother.
“It truly feels like there’s a hole in my heart that won’t stop bleeding and there’s nothing I can do about it,” Hilda said.
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The motive has yet to be established, but according to the district attorney, Abdulkareem planned the murder and was arrested with a semi-automatic firearm and ammunition consistent with the firearm used in the shooting.
“The defendant was known to the office, was a prior patient and had been dissatisfied and gone in repeatedly to the dentist office such that his behavior was erratic, and they were afraid of him,” he said.
Harouni’s family wants the world to know their son and that he was the best of them.
“He was amazing,” Hilda said. “He was smart, intelligent extremely kind and generous. He wanted to world to be a better place.”
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