When police initially spoke to Al-Malahi the night of his father’s death, he said he went to school at 8 a.m. and was not at the store. According to court documents, police believe he was “openly deceitful” about where he was at the time of the murder.

But on Feb. 8, detectives brought him in for an interview and his story changed.

16-year-old Ahmed Al-Malahi was arrested in the Feb. 7 murder of his father, Tawfika Al-Malahi, at his convenience store in Fort Wayne, Indiana. – Photo composed by staff

Al-Malahi eventually told detectives he had closed his father’s store the night of Feb. 6 and left the door unlocked purposefully “so that he could get inside to do this to his father the next day,” according to court documents.

Al-Malahi said he walked back to the store Feb. 7 and hid behind a small table to wait for his father. He said when his father came in around 9 a.m., he stood up and grabbed him, stabbing him in the back with a knife multiple times. He said he got the knife at home and that it belonged to his mother.

Al-Malahi went on to say he used a piece of metal to hit his father in the back of the head. When his father fell to the ground, Al-Malahi stabbed him again multiple times before cutting his throat with the knife.

The coroner reported that Tawfika Al-Malahi had about 45 stab wounds, as well as a deep laceration on his neck and a large skull fracture that both appeared to be inflicted after he was already dead.

The police report offered no motives for the killing.

Documents say police then spoke with Al-Malahi ’s mother, who said her husband was killed and that her son was a suspect.

Detectives noted the only item stolen from the store was the DVR that controls the camera system. Al-Malahi told police in his interview that, after stabbing his father, he took the DVR, changed his clothes and threw the evidence in a trash bag after cleaning up the scene with bleach.

Al-Malahi also said he took the cash from the register because he wanted to make it look like a robbery.

Al-Malahi, a student at Northrop High School, told investigators he then rode his bike to the bus stop and went to school that day. Police checked the attendance records and noted he got to school around 11:40 a.m.