Haider Shaid Rana murdered Maame Adwoa Amuah: prosecutors

Haider Rana. (Image via a booking photo of the Miami-Dade County Jail.)

A Florida man has been accused of murdering his lover after she allegedly barged into his apartment while he was watching a movie with a stripper.

According to Miami-Dade County prison and court records Haider Shaid Rana, 24, is being held with a gun without a bond on second-degree murder charges. The charges were filed on November 17, court filings show. The defendant was placed under an arrest warrant at 6:41 p.m. on November 18. A first appearance took place on November 20 and no further hearings are planned in his case at this time. The file indicates that he was represented by a private attorney for his first appearance; However, the name of this attorney does not appear in the current court record.

Maame Adwoa Amuah25, died in a hospital after being shot in the neck in a high-rise condominium at Northeast 1st Avenue and Northeast 6th Street in early May 2021, according to Miami ABC subsidiary WPLG. Some reports state that the shooting took place on May 5; some say it was May 6th.

Maame Adwoa Amuah. (Image via WPLG-TV Screenshot.)

During a court hearing for Rana, which was covered by WPLG, a lawyer said the shooting occurred when Amuah started knocking on Rana’s door multiple times around 1:00 am. Rana allegedly asked who was there several times and received “no reply”.

“The moment he breaks down the door to see if anyone is hiding under the eyehole, the door is thrown open, the assailant comes in, he fires a shot, the assailant falls,” this attorney said in court.

The attorney was not named in the WPLG report, and it is unclear whether the attorney was a prosecutor or a defense attorney.

Before the shooting, lawyers said Amuah called Rana 18 times, according to WPLG’s on-air report, although an online report said 19 phone calls were made.

Rana’s lawyers claim he fired in self-defense and that Amuah was the attacker – presumably because he hammered on the door and stormed into the house.

WPLG said first responders found Amuah mortally wounded at 1:20 a.m. She was taken to a hospital in critical condition, but succumbed to her injuries a short time later.

That Miami Herald described the defendant as an “internet entrepreneur” working on an app to deliver marijuana and alcohol to consumers, and the scene where the shooting took place as a “luxury” condo.

“Haider Rana was watching TV with an exotic dancer after a day at the pool,” the newspaper reported. “You heard a knock. Rana grabbed his pistol and headed for the front door.”

That heraldCiting police and an arrest warrant, Amuah said she lives across the street and has been in a relationship with her alleged killer for about a month. Rana described the relationship as “friends with benefits,” the newspaper reported, citing the warrant.

“But the herald continued, “Rana also had a romantic relationship with a 26-year-old exotic dancer named Abi-Gail Dwyer, whom he met at the King of Diamonds Club. According to the warrant, Rana invited her to a boat party in early May and then to his building’s pool on the day of the shooting.”

Dwyer reportedly told police that around 11:30 p.m. and 11:45 p.m., there was a light knock on the door while she and Rana were drinking, smoking weed and watching television. Rana, she claimed, went to see but didn’t open the door; he (according to Dwyer) concluded that the sound may have come from the television.

About five minutes later, Dwyer said, there was a louder knock, and that’s when Rana grabbed his gun, opened the door, and without speaking fired.

The timeline doesn’t exactly match what’s been said elsewhere as the shooting at around 1:00 a.m

Prosecutors are moving forward with their case more than a year after the shooting, despite the defendant’s claims of self-defense.

The victim’s mother offered something of an unofficial explanation for this.

“This guy knew my daughter was coming. She’s been calling him for two days.” Jonell Jackson-Manu allegedly told herald on Monday. “He got angry because my daughter kept calling and texting. He was in the room with another girl.”

As the newspaper pointed out, Florida’s 2005 Stand Your Ground Law eliminated the requirement to withdraw before a person lawfully in a “dwelling or residence” uses deadly force “to avoid imminent death or serious… to prevent bodily harm to oneself or others, or to prevent the impending commission of a violent crime.”

A defendant’s belief that his own death (or grievous bodily harm) is “imminent” must also be “reasonable” under the law, and this issue is usually at the heart of most self-defense cases.

However, the law was later amended to provide additional legal protections for people who shot and killed intruders in their homes. Here is the statute itself:

(2) A person is presumed to have had a well-founded fear of imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to himself or another when using defensive devices or threatening to cause death or serious physical injury to another should or can if:

(a) The person against whom the defensive force was used or threatened was about to enter, or had entered unlawfully and by force, any dwelling, residence or occupied vehicle, or when that person had departed or attempted to do so remove another person from the home, residence or occupied vehicle against that person’s will; and

(b) The person using or threatening to use defensive devices knew or had reason to believe that an illegal and violent entry or an illegal and violent act was or had taken place.

In other words, under the amended Florida law, if an intruder “unlawfully and violently” attempts to enter one’s home, fear of death is “presumptive.”

In Florida, prosecutors have to refute self-defense in such situations herald noted – hence the facts of the case were discussed in some detail at the defendant’s recent trial.

The law has some caveats: A legal occupant of a dwelling cannot kill another person who is a legal occupant of the same dwelling, a child or grandchild of a legal occupant of the dwelling, a law enforcement officer, or if the person seeking protection is a criminal.

A coroner’s report suggests authorities do not believe Amuah attempted to evade detection by crouching under the defendant’s peephole herald written down. The trajectory of the bullet indicates that the defendant “fired while facing her and the muzzle of the gun must have been level with her neck wound.” herald said, citing the warrant. In other words, the wound did not show a downward trajectory.

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