Suspect arrested after murder of Edmonds rideshare driver

Members of Shariif's family outside the courtromm
Photo by Nick Ng

Edmonds Police have arrested a suspect in the January 3, 2024, murder of 31-year-old Abdikadir Gedi Shariif. 

The suspect, twenty-one-year-old Edmonds resident Alex Matthew Waggoner, was arrested around 2:30pm Wednesday, January 10, 2024 without incident by members of the Snohomish County Violent Offenders Task Force (VOTF). 

He was arrested after he walked away from his residence in the 23500 block of Edmonds Way. 

At the time of his arrest, the suspect was armed with two handguns and was wearing body armor. There were no injuries as a result of his arrest. 

He was transported to the Edmonds Police Department, where detectives interviewed him before he was booked into the Snohomish County Jail for 2nd-degree Murder. Bail has been set at $1 million.

Just after 10:15pm on January 3rd. Mr. Shariif was working as a rideshare driver and had just dropped off a customer returning from vacation. 

After departing the drop-off, Mr. Shariif drove westbound on 236th St SW in Edmonds and, with a green signal, began making a left-hand turn onto Edmonds Way. 

The suspect was crossing from west to east at the same crosswalk Mr. Shariif entered during his turn. 

According to the police report, dash and interior cam video from the victim’s car indicates that while making the turn he was “distracted looking down at his phone” and “narrowly missed” the suspect in the crosswalk. 

The video also indicates that Shariif then slowed down his car, rolled the driver's window down, and appeared to begin to say “I’m sorry” when the suspect immediately began shooting at him. 

Without warning, the suspect fired multiple times at Mr. Shariif, mortally wounding him. He later died at Harborview Medical Center.

 
Detectives received multiple tips and collected several types of evidence during the investigation. 

Numerous search warrants were also served to recover physical, digital, and other types of evidence. After his arrest, a search warrant was served on the suspect's residence, and additional evidence was recovered. 

New witnesses were also contacted and interviewed at this location.

This investigation is an excellent example of community involvement, tireless detective work, and collaboration among law enforcement partners. 

Now that the suspect is in custody, detectives will continue their investigation to include a thorough analysis of the firearms that were recovered.

--Information from MyEdmondsNews.com was used in this story