Man convicted of fatally shooting his 2 daughters in Texas

BREAKING NEWS: Egyptian dad is convicted on murder charges for 2008 ‘honor killing’ of his two teenage daughters in Texas and will spend life in prison

• Yaser Said, 65, was found guilty of capital murder in the deaths of his two teen daughters, 18-year-old Amina Said and 17-year-old Sarah Said in 2008
• Prosecutor Lauren Black said Said was ‘obsessed with possession and control’ after it was believed he performed the ‘honor killings’ because he didn’t like his daughters’ dating habits and thought they were becoming ‘too American’ 
• Said had evaded arrest for more than 12 years after being accused of the two girls’ deaths. He will now face life in jail for the heinous crimes 
• Sarah Said was shot nine times and Amina Said was shot twice. In a heartbreaking final attempt to get help, Sarah called 911 and said ‘help, my dad shot me. I’m dying’

A Egyptian dad has been convicted of murder and will now spend his life in prison after he fatally shooting his two teenage daughters in 2008 in an ‘honor killing.’

Yaser Said, 65, who lived in Dallas, Texas, was found guilty of capital murder in the deaths of 18-year-old Amina Said and 17-year-old Sarah Said – 12 years after the girls were tragically found dead.  

Prosecutors did not pursue the death penalty, meaning cab driver Yaser Said receives an automatic life sentence for the heinous crimes.

Lauren Black, prosecuting, has said the father was ‘obsessed with possession and control.’

The teen sisters were found shot to death in a taxi parked in the parking lot of the Omni Mandalay Hotel in Irving, Texas, on New Year’s Day in 2008. 

Jurors heard a that Sarah Said made a 911 call by cellphone, telling the operator that her father had shot her and that she was dying.

The operator heard: ‘Help, my dad shot me! I’m dying.’ 

Sarah Said was shot nine times and Amina Said was shot twice. Investigators said Amina was killed instantly.

A week before they were killed, the teen girls and their mother fled their home in the Dallas suburb of Lewisville and went to Oklahoma to escape Said. The sisters´ boyfriends also joined them.

Yaser Said, 65, was found guilty of capital murder in the deaths of 18-year-old Amina Said and 17-year-old Sarah Said. Prosecutors did not pursue the death penalty, meaning Yaser Said receives an automatic life sentence 

The sisters were found shot to death in a taxi parked near a hotel in the Dallas suburb of Irving on New Year´s Day in 2008. Jurors heard a 911 call Sarah Said made by cellphone, telling the operator that her father had shot her and that she was dying 

Yaser Said, an Egyptian-born cab driver who lived with his family just north of Dallas, Texas, allegedly shot his daughters, 17-year-old Sarah (center) and 18-year-old Amina (right), to death in his taxi after telling them they were going out to eat on New Years Day 14 years ago

The prosecutor said the sisters had become ‘very scared for their lives,’ and decided to leave after their father ‘put a gun to Amina´s head and threatened to kill her.’

Mother Patricia Owens, who is divorced from Said, testified that he convinced her to return to Texas. She testified: ‘I didn´t think anything would happen.’

In a letter written to the judge, Said wrote that he was not happy with his daughters´ ‘dating activity’ but he denied killing them.

It is widely speculated Said committed the honor killing – a practice where individuals are murdered for bringing perceived shame on their family – after he discovered Amina had a non-Muslim boyfriend and because he thought they were becoming ‘too American.’

On Monday, Said insisted that he did not kill his daughters. He said he fled the taxi he was driving that evening because he thought they were being followed and someone wanted to kill him. 

The father said he did not turn himself in to authorities because he feared he would not get a fair trial.

The sisters were allegedly murdered by their own father, 17-year-old Sarah (left) and 18-year-old Amina (right)

Said (right) pictured with his son Islam, and daughters Sarah (center, right) and Amina (left). Islam helped harbor his father after he allegedly murdered the girls

In an email sent on December 21, 2007, Amina Said told a teacher that she and her sister planned to run away. 

She said they didn’t want to live by the culture of their father, who was born in Egypt, nor did they want arranged marriages, as he planned. 

Her father, she said, had ‘made our lives a nightmare.’ The email added: ‘He will, without any drama nor doubt, kill us.’

Said’s abuse of his family extended back as far as 1998, when Owens and the girls signed an affidavit alleging he had sexually abused his daughters. 

Those charges were later dropped after the girls recanted their story because they said they didn’t want to be forced to relocate. 

In the years following those allegations, friends of the girls reported they often saw them wit bruises on their bodies or witnessed Said being physically violent to his family. 

The girls reportedly confided in friends that their father was obsessively controlling, and that they often feared he was surveilling them wherever they went. 

After the slayings, Said was sought on a capital murder warrant, and was placed on the FBI´s most-wanted list. 

He was finally arrested arrested in August 2020 in Justin, about 35 miles northwest of Dallas. 

His son, Islam Said, and his brother, Yassim Said, were subsequently convicted of helping him evade arrest.

Both relatives are serving sentences in federal prison. 

Said’s son, Islam (left) and his brother, Yassein (right). They are both serving time in federal prison for harboring Said while he was a wanted fugitive

Said vanished after his daughters’ bodies were found, and made it onto the FBI Most Wanted Fugitives list in the following years

Said’s abuse of his family extended back as far as 1998, when Owens and the girls signed an affidavit alleging he had sexually abused his daughters

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