An Attempted Honor Killing in Washington State

Lacey, Washington is a suburb of Olympia with a population of about 50,000. In October a man was seen chocking a girl outside of a public high school. Investigators have since determined the man was the girl’s father and he was attempting an honor killing because the 17-year-old had refused to participate in an arranged marriage.

Court records state Ihsan Ali was choking his 17-year-old daughter “to the point where she had lost consciousness,” as her boyfriend and other students tried to pull her away. The teen’s mother, Zahraa Ali, was also grabbing at her and choking her, according to court documents.

Investigators say the teen’s father also punched her boyfriend.

The victim eventually got away and ran into the school, screaming, “My dad was trying to kill me.” It prompted a lockdown as school staff blocked her parents from getting to her.

Fortunately the girl survived, though probably only because she was in a public place where other people intervened. All of this happened because her parents were planning to send her out of the country to Iraq where she was supposed to marry an older man.

Court documents state that she reported abuse by both Ishan, her father, and her mother, Zahraa Subhi Mohsin Ali prior to the incident.

She also told investigators her parents had also planned to forcefully send her to Iraq to marry an older man and had threatened to kill her.

“Earlier in the day she was supposed to be flown out of the country. She ran to the school. She was afraid,” said Barnes. 

The girl’s boyfriend later related everything that happened to his father, Victor Barnes. Barnes was upset that the school hadn’t done more to protect the girl.

Barnes says an adult should have escorted the girl to the bus, rather than his son. He says the school staff knew about her situation, and also knew that she was on her way to a shelter.  

“I’m glad he was there to save her life, but I need more explanation about why the adults were so careless,” he said.  

Barnes says his son and the girl didn’t deserve the trauma they received at the hands of adults.

Both of the girl’s parents have now been charged with attempted murder, attempted kidnapping and assault. She probably won’t be seeing them much for a number of years as there’s not much doubt what happened here. There are multiple witnesses and some of it was caught on video. This local news report contains some video of the attack.