(Photo: Jay Westcott)

UPDATE 3:43 p.m.: U.S. Attorney's office has dropped all charges against the five employees who were arrested "based on all available evidence," it announced this afternoon in a press release. The charges can still be re-filed. Read more on this development here.

Original post: Very few people who regularly spend their nights on the 1900 block of 9th Street NW want to talk about the night that 27-year-old Ali Ahmed Mohammed died.

With a preliminary hearing set for Monday in the legal case against five former DC9 nightclub employees accused of assault in connection with Mohammed’s death, the subject of exactly what happened in the early morning hours of Oct. 15 is not a welcome one in this part of Shaw, commonly referred to as ‘Little Ethiopia’ or ‘Little Addis’ by the Ethiopian immigrant community who call the area home.

“I shouldn’t even be talking to you,” says one man who works regular shifts at a restaurant on this block. He insists on not being identified in any way, citing the high degree of tension within the neighborhood over Mohammed’s death. “I don’t know why they did that or what happened,” the man says, when asked about whether he can share any general observations, within the context of the incident, about what an average night on this street is like. “You have to be so careful,” he says. “Everybody knew Ali.”

At Nellie’s, a sports-themed gay bar just two doors down from DC9, the subject is literally taboo. Employees have been instructed to say ‘no comment’ and refer any and all media inquiries about anything to do with the case to the bar’s owner, Douglas Schantz. Reached by phone, Schantz declines to speak even broadly about his experiences as a business owner on this block. “We’re not really having any challenges, so I’m not going to comment on that,” says Schantz.

A crowd of nearly 200, mostly from the Ethiopian community, attended an emotional candlelight vigil for Mohammed here four days after he died. Chants of “We want justice!” and “Charge the killers!” rang out up and down the block during the memorial. One mourner who claimed to be Mohammed’s friend said that night that he never knew Mohammed to be a drinker, due to his Muslim upbringing. But a single night spent at only a handful of bars in Little Ethiopia make plain that Mohammed was well known in the 9th Street nightlife scene. “He liked to enjoy life,” as one friend puts it.

The question of whether or not Mohammed was intoxicated the night that he died will almost certainly play a role in the trial of the five men who stand accused of chasing, tackling, and beating him shortly after he allegedly threw one or two bricks through the front window of DC9. An early report on the incident from Ward 1 D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham indicated that Mohammed reportedly appeared drunk when he attempted to enter the bar after it had closed for the night, only to return later to smash the window in an apparent act of retaliation for being denied entry.

Mohammed was pronounced dead at Howard University Hospital a short while after the altercation. Three weeks later, a determination on the cause of his death is still pending from the D.C. medical examiner. Should it be ruled a homicide, it’s possible the charges against one or more of the five defendants, Bill Spieler, Darryl Carter, Evan Preller, Arthur Zaloga, and Reginald Phillips, could be elevated to second-degree murder.

“We will miss you forever, Ali,” reads the message on a chalkboard at Asefu Debalke’s restaurant at 1920 9th Street NW. At the corner of the bar sits a “pledge box” to gather donations for the “Justice for Ali” fund.

Debalke describes Ali as a “nice, quiet” young man who “never drank more than two or three.” She remembers him being always ready with a hug for anyone who greeted him, and that he loved to dance. “Everybody loved him,” she says.

Even despite having glowing things to say about Mohammed, Debalke too worries about saying too much about him. After sharing one small story that illustrated how Mohammed once reacted gently and calmly to a tense situation, she quickly backtracks, and asks that the story not be printed. “I don’t like that, because then people might try to say he got into fights, and that’s not right,” she says. She’s also known Spieler, a co-owner of DC9 who has since resigned, for years. “I feel sorry for him, too,” she says.

Two days before Mohammed died, he called his friend Nate in Connecticut and asked if he could come up for a visit. Nate, who says he’s known Mohammed since they were both in the ninth grade but declined to give his last name, says he called Ali back and told him he was welcome any time. “I trust him more than I trust myself,” says Nate. He repeats that exact line three more times during the same conversation.