last link on the left › deadmonton

Ola Tinineh Moses, 38, was shot to death May 6th, 2007.

Moses was Edmonton's twelfth homicide victim of the year.

Omar Househ, 25, was charged with kidnapping with a firearm, two counts of unlawful confinement, assault with a weapon, uttering threats causing death or bodily harm, pointing a firearm, and possession of a loaded prohibited or restricted firearm.

Samer Farzat Chehimi, 21, is wanted for kidnapping and two counts of unlawful confinement. He remains at large.

latest update

Just before 4:00 p.m. on May 6th, 2007 a report of shots fired brought officers to the Urban Stylez clothing store at the corner of 107th Avenue and 110th Street.

The 911 call was made by a store employee who ran across the avenue to a Kwiki Mart where he asked to borrow the phone.

"He just said, 'Somebody shot in my store. Call 911,' " said the convenience store owner. The man who made the call was taken in for questioning and later released.

Police secured a perimeter around the store not knowing if gunmen lay in wait inside.

Insp. Dan Jones provided the story for media.

"Police responded here and there was a number of individuals running around on the outside saying that somebody had been shot inside the store."

"They didn't know if the bad guys were in the store, they didn't know about the shooters."

"The members surrounded the store and breached it and actually went inside. Once they got inside they did find a single male, face down on the floor, who had been shot a number of times."

"The ambulance arrived here and pronounced him dead."

"We also found two individuals who had been duct-taped and tied up in the back of the store. They've been taken downtown for questioning."

"Right now we don't know who the shooters are – the shooters are still at large – we're looking for them."

"So right now it's a bit chaotic but, as I said, the shooters have not been apprehended at this time."

"We don't know who we're really looking for at this time so hopefully a little more information will be provided by the individuals who were duct-taped inside."

"We encourage anybody who saw anything or heard anything to please come forward and help us out."

Police were interested in speaking to anyone who may have been in the store between 3:40 and 3:50 p.m.

The two men were found seated in the stock room with their hands duct-taped in front of them. Police said they were cooperative when questioned, something they couldn't say for the store's owner.

Homicide detectives called in the gang unit to assist with the investigation but police were at first reluctant to confirm any gang ties in the shooting.

In a news release the following day authorities indicated the incident was gang-related and not a random act.

Police also revised the number of men bound with duct tape. A third man, a staff member, was found in a room separate from the original two men, who were now identified as customers.

One witness described seeing two men run east from the store down a back alley after the shooting.

"I'm saying two people at least, because one person has been shot and another two have been duct-taped. It would be pretty tough for one person to do that," confirmed Insp. Jones.

Police blocked off 107th Avenue well into the evening as they searched for one or more suspects and other possible witnesses.

The victim was identified as 38-year-old Ola Tinineh Moses.

His body remained in the store overnight, shielded from view by black plastic garbage bags, before being removed by staff from the medical examiner's office.

Autopsy results indicated Moses died of multiple gunshot wounds.

Police believe the man was not a customer or a staff member, and investigators were in the process of determining links between him and the store.

The Edmonton Journal described the killing as "execution-style" in its coverage.

The Urban Stylez store opened in December 2006 and was said to be operated by a 27-year-old Middle Eastern man. One neighbour told the Edmonton Sun one of the owners was of Egyptian descent, in his mid to late 20s. The Sun reported the other owner, driving a green Mercedes, showed up shortly after the shooting and was taken away by police.

According to the Urban Stylez Nexopia web site [now off line], the store is affiliated with Bling Canada at 15931 Stony Plain Road (which has a Myspace web presence). Both stores carry lines of ball caps, hooded sweaters and baggy jeans as well as music and accessories popularised by rap and hip-hop artists.

The Journal reported the stores are registered as the property of Phat Hats Ltd., a company owned by businessman Yassir Khaled.

Urban Stylez was normally open between 11 and 6 on Sundays and police said they had not been called to the store before.

However, 19-year-old Ladislau Jose, who said he was a frequent customer and knew the owner, later told reporters the store was recently held up.

"Last month when I was here they told me that they got robbed by, I don't know, some black guys that came here and they robberied it."

"Since then I haven't heard nothing."

"It's really crazy hey? Like the youth from today on they killing each other. I don't think that's right thing they should do but it's really wrong what happened. Nobody was expecting that."

"He's one of my friends," Jose said of one of the owners. "He gives me good deals when I come to buy clothes."

Area resident Darell Mortenson was enjoying the day's warm weather when all hell seemed to break loose in front of his eyes. He later saw police take two men out of the store.

"There were three officers at the front of the store and two in the back. They all had their guns drawn."

"Two African-American fellows were duct-taped around their wrists. As soon as I saw the duct tape, I thought: hostage situation."

Mortenson reflected on crime along the Avenue of Nations.

"I witness quite a bit in the neighbourhood. Like last summer we had the machetes incident in front of Kwiki. Then a few years ago there was that girl that was found in the dumpster burned."

"So, you know like, it's really not the best neighbourhood."

The Urban Stylez shooting took place two blocks from the location of Edmonton's seventeenth murder of 2006.

35-year-old Dung Tri Tran was shot to death, also in broad daylight, on July 24th.

Tran's black Infiniti SUV was rammed head-on by a silver Chevrolet minivan near 107th Avenue at 112th Street. Shots were fired and Tran's body fell out of his car. The car then rolled south across the avenue and continued driverless for half a block before crashing into a building.

One kilo of cocaine was found inside Tran's car. No suspects have been identified or arrested in connection with the case.

According to Const. Cory Buerger, a beat officer who patrols 107th Avenue, much of the area's problems stem from drugs.

"Drugs are rife along the avenue and there's a lot of spinoff from that – theft of auto, theft from auto, assaults," he said.

"And there's gang activity, absolutely."

“It's pretty bad when you hear the drug users tell us they're too scared to be on the streets,” said fellow officer Const. Dave Chow.

“It's a violent neighbourhood,” Chow reflected.

On May 8th, 2007 the Edmonton Sun reported that police had identified suspects in the case.

"It's definitely gang-related and we're not getting a lot of co-operation, which is typical in gang homicides," said the Sun's source who was close to the investigation.

The Sun reported that 38-year-old Ola Tinineh Moses had recently moved to Edmonton from Calgary.

It was there he was convicted of aggravated assault for three vicious attacks on his former common-law wife in 2001. Moses was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison.

The Calgary court heard how, in the most severe of the attacks, the victim bled three litres of blood into internal cavities before passing out in a hospital emergency room.

Moses told the woman to tell doctors she'd been in a skiing accident, but in fact he had repeatedly kicked and punched her, rupturing her spleen before driving her to hospital.

After being closed for a day, staff at the Urban Stylez sister store were back at work. The Sun spoke to a man who answered the phone at Bling Canada who did not want to talk about the shooting.

“We're not really sure what's going on, we're just waiting for the police to investigate. We're just trying to get back to work,” the man said before hanging up on the reporter.

On May 10th, 2007 the Edmonton Journal published part of an interview they conducted with Ola Moses's former wife.

The woman, who didn't want to be identified, said Moses told her several times in the months before his death that he was in danger.

"He called me up a few times to say someone was out to get him. He thought someone was following him," said his former wife.

"He said he felt he was in danger," she told the Journal.

Moses was always vague and never gave details about what was bothering him, she said.

The story also gave details of how Moses moved to Canada from Sierra Leone to join family in 1988, having three sisters and two brothers who live in Canada or the United States.

Moses had three children of his own, two boys and a girl, the oldest being 17.

"They spoke at least twice a week, if not more. He was very good to my kids and he was concerned for me," his former wife said. "If I needed him for something, I would just call and he would do what he could."

After being divorced, Moses came to Alberta in 1996. He served time in Bowden Institution for a 2001 aggravated assault conviction and then moved to Edmonton.

At the time of his death, Moses worked in a grocery warehouse and his former wife said she knew little of what illegal activities he might be involved in. She maintained there was more to him than a criminal life.

"There was a family side to Ola, another side to him," she said. "When I heard about what happened, I was concerned for my children. They just lost their father."

Police did not believe he was a customer of the store when he was shot and investigators were trying to determine what he was doing there.

Also on May 10th the elusive and evasive owner of the Urban Stylez store, Yassir Khaled, met with homicide detectives outside police headquarters.

Global Edmonton cameras happened to be on scene and attempted an interview with the man.

A reporter, thought to be Carolyn Jarvis, tried in vain to catch up to the man and get his reaction.

"Any comment on the murder that recently happened at your clothing store?" she asked.

"No comment, have a nice day, thank you," was Khaled's response.

On May 12th, 2007 a memorial to Ola Moses sprang up at the Urban Stylez clothing store.

Flowers, photographs and tributes marked the spot where the 38-year-old man died.

On May 17th, 2007 police announced they had issued warrants for Omar Househ, 25, and another man late in the previous week.

It was revealed that the Toronto Police Service contacted Edmonton police and told them they had arrested Househ on May 10th. The man was charged with two counts of assault in relation to a domestic incident, according to police.

Househ was expected to be brought to Edmonton later in the week to face charges of kidnapping with a firearm, two counts of unlawful confinement, assault with a weapon, uttering threats causing death or bodily harm, pointing a firearm, and possession of a loaded prohibited or restricted firearm.

Househ was expected to appear in an Edmonton courtroom sometime in the next week.

A warrant was also issued for 21-year-old Samer Farzat Chehimi, wanted for kidnapping and two counts of unlawful confinement. He remains at large.

Neither suspect was charged with the murder, and homicide detectives continue searching for the shooter responsible for the death of Ola Moses.

“These are not the suspects in the shooting, but they were involved,” said a police spokesman.

The kidnapping charges were due to events that occurred at Urban Stylez before gunfire erupted, the spokesman said.

Investigators determined a male Urban Stylez employee was forcibly taken out of the store for a short period of time, then brought back in before the shooting occured.

Police revealed that Moses, Househ and Chehimi entered the clothing store together, bound two customers with duct tape, kidnapped the employee and later re-entered the store.

Meantime, a second group entered the store and according to the police spokesman "that's when the shooting takes place."

Police added the store's owner, Yassir Khaled, refuses to be cooperative.

“The owner continues to be not forthcoming. Any information that he could give to police would be very valuable,” said the spokesman.

"All of the suspects are known to the victim. There's no random acts of violence."

Investigators said they were following up on strong leads in relation to the homicide; however no one was in custody and no further charges have been laid.

In a story published by the Edmonton Sun on December 17th, 2007, police revealed that Nawar Jawad was a prime suspect in the Moses case.

Jawad's body was found beaten, stripped naked and burned December 2nd, 2007 in a ditch in northeastern Edmonton. He was the city's thirty-first homicide victim of the year.

"We're one suspect down in the Moses case. Nawar Jawad is one guy we suspected may have pulled the trigger," homicide Det. Bill Clark told the Sun.

"It's possible Jawad was killed as retribution for Moses. Both homicide cases remain open and we can't rule that out."

Det. Clark confirmed Jawad was among several persons they wanted to talk to in connection with the Moses homicide.

"We'd been looking for Jawad for months to question him about the killing. He and Moses and a lot of other people involved in the Urban Stylez shooting knew of each other ... now we may never know if Jawad did it," Clark told the Sun.

Police also indicated they wanted to explore the relationship between Jawad and Urban Stylez store owner Yassir Khaled.

"Khaled and Jawad knew each other," Clark said, indicating Khaled had been less than forthcoming in discussions with police.

The Sun tried their hand at getting Khaled to talk but the paper reported he could not be reached for comment. The Urban Stylez outlet has not re-opened and the phone number at his Stony Plain Road Bling Canada store is no longer in service.

On January 24th, 2008 it was reported that one of the two men charged in connection with the murder of Ola Moses was gunned down in the doorway of a home in Castle Downs.

Media reports indicated Omar Househ was the victim of multiple gunshot wounds after he answered a supper-hour knock on the door of his family's upscale home.

deadmonton 2007 - ola tinineh moses