A man unconnected to TU steals from a campus safe in a string of burglaries against Muslim institutions.
On Aug. 24, the University of Tulsa’s Muslim Student Prayer House was robbed. The robbery occurred from approximately 4:08-4:24 p.m. The burglar broke into the office of the building and stole money from the safe.
A representative from the Prayer House said that, “it appeared as if the man had been there before. The suspect seemed to know where everything was located in the building.”
The security footage shows that the burglar parked directly in front of the prayer house. The footage also shows that he walked into the building’s bathroom and prayer room. It appeared as if he were looking to make sure that he was alone. The man then proceeded to break into the office and stole cash from the safe. A report was filed with the Tulsa Police Department.
A representative of the Prayer House said that suspect has now been identified as Amadou Oury Bah. Bah has been caught on video surveillance stealing from multiple prayer houses across the United States, specifically the Midwest.
An online article written by Mackenzie Clark from the Lawrence Journal-World says, “On Aug. 13, the suspect stole two donation boxes from the Islamic Center of Lawrence that totaled $1000-$2000.”
On Aug. 14, the next day, he robbed the Islamic Society of Wichita. The suspect was arrested in Johnson County, Kansas for an unrelated low-level felony crime. He was later released on Aug. 26 as those charges were dropped. An arrest warrant was placed for Amadou Oury Bah, 32, shortly after. The suspect has two home residences. The first is located in Phoenix, Arizona; the second is located in Seattle, Washington. The police caught the suspect in Omaha, Nebraska on Aug. 28. The suspect was taken back to Kansas to face trial in Kansas.
His court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 12. In addition to being charged for burglary, he is also facing a misdemeanor charge of criminal damage for allegedly damaging a screen and lock at the Islamic Society of Wichita.
Bah is being nicknamed as a “serial burglar,” as he is a habitual offender who committed almost identical crimes at each location he visited. At this time, it is thought that that all of his robberies were premeditated as he, specifically, only targeted institutions of Islamic affiliation.
