New details emerge in patricide case

Court records detail a family member’s discovery of Alhaji Buhari’s body.

By JUSTIN VELLUCCI
TribLive

A witness found their adult son missing and husband “unresponsive, covered in blood and cold to the touch on the kitchen floor” after returning from errands last weekend to their Jefferson Hills home, according to details released Tuesday in a criminal complaint about the alleged patricide.

Kabir Buhari, 42, of Jefferson Hills remained in custody in Maryland on murder charges. Police say he repeatedly and fatally stabbed his father, Alhaji Buhari, in the Arnoni Drive home the two men shared.

Buhari, who has a history of mental health issues, was charged Saturday in the death of his 69-year-old father. The U.S. Marshal’s Fugitive Task Force and Maryland’s Montgomery County Police Department arrested Buhari on Monday at a hotel in Bethesda, Md. He was awaiting extradition Tuesday to the Pittsburgh area.

Buhari’s parent, identified in court records only as “Witness #1,” left the family’s two-story, single-family home around 8:55 a.m. Saturday to do some errands, the complaint said.

Police said Alhaji Bujari was working on a laptop at the time in his bedroom. The suspect’s car, a silver Chevy Impala, was parked in the driveway.

The witness, while running errands, grew concerned after their husband did not respond to a text about car repairs sent at 11:07 a.m., the complaint said. That was not like him, the witness told police. The witness returned home around 3:20 p.m. and found their husband’s body, the complaint said. He had been stabbed repeatedly in the chest, neck and face. He also had suffered what police called “defensive wounds” on his hands.

Jefferson Hills police were dispatched around 4 p.m. after the witness called 911 to report their husband was unresponsive and had suffered what appeared to be “an apparent gunshot wound,” the complaint said.

Allegheny County Police began their homicide investigation later that afternoon. A medic from a regional SWAT team pronounced Alhaji Buhari dead at 6:38 p.m.

Police said when the witness came home, Buhari’s Chevy was no longer in the driveway.

Previous incident

Buhari, who spent most of his days in the home’s basement or a second-floor bedroom, had been suffering with mental health issues, the witness told police, according to the complaint.

He had been involuntarily committed to psychiatric facilities multiple times and exhibited “signs of paranoia,” the complaint said. Buhari owned at least one gun and “always had it on his person, even in the residence,” the witness told authorities.

Buhari had not been diagnosed with a specific mental health issue or disorder because he “would not comply with doctors,” the witness said, according to police.

Police said they responded to a domestic incident at the Buharis’ home in August 2025.

During the incident last summer, Alhaji Buhari locked himself in a bedroom, while his son picked a lock to get in, the complaint said. Police seized three guns from the property after the incident.

Last weekend, police found drops of “red/brown staining” leading toward the basement of the family’s home, the complaint said. They found similar marks on a kitchen sink faucet, a drawer and on a box of Band-Aids.

Two knives were recovered “in close proximity to the drawer with a blood smear,” the complaint said.

Police did not say in the complaint whose blood was found near the knives.

On Saturday, a license-plate reader picked up the suspect’s car heading south. At 10:36 a.m. it was spotted on Route 51, six minutes from the home, then at 11:41 a.m. near a Fayette County hotel, the complaint said.

Police said Buhari appeared to be heading toward Maryland, “where known family members live.” The family members were not expecting him, police said.

Detectives learned Buhari might be at the Bethesda hotel and picked him up Monday morning.

Failed gun purchase

Bethel Park police had charged Buhari in April with unsworn falsification to authorities and the illegal sale or transfer of firearms.

According to the criminal complaint in that case, Buhari went to Allegheny Arms Jan. 3 to buy a Smith and Wesson handgun.

However, when a store employee ran him through a state background check, Buhari was denied because he had a previous involuntary commitment to Jefferson Hospital for psychiatric care on Aug. 18. He was committed again three days after he tried to buy the gun.

Under Pennsylvania law, a mental health commitment prohibits a person from purchasing a firearm. On the federal forms Buhari filled out to buy the gun, the criminal complaint said, he denied ever having been committed to a psychiatric hospital.

In 2005 and 2006, Buhari also was involved in a courtroom battle for custody of a child he was raising with a Pittsburgh woman, court records show.

The woman sought a restraining order against Buhari on March 27, 2006, records show. He then filed a restraining order against her about two weeks later.

The criminal complaint in the current case, which outlines the evidence against Buhari, was not available until Tuesday because the document was under seal, according to Jim Madalinsky, a county police spokesman.