Ahmed Ismail-Sheikh, 25, died of injuries suffered during an altercation on July 15th, 2011.
Ismail-Sheikh was Edmonton's twenty-ninth homicide victim of the year.
Arab Mursal Sugule, 22, was charged with second-degree murder, assault causing bodily harm, two counts of possession of a weapon, and obstructing a police officer.
Inglewood - a bad neighbourhood? |
another Somali death
Edmonton - a bad city? |
a welcome arrest
media temptation
Morning commuters got bottlenecked on their travels early July 15th, 2011 by a police presence in front of 11218 124 Street as officers investigated a suspicious death in the Inglewood neighbourhood.
A call had come in around 1:40 a.m. reporting an unconscious man in an apartment parking lot.
"That man, believed to be 25 years of age, was transported to hospital suffering from injuries as a result of an altercation of some sort," a police spokesman said.
"He has since passed away of those injuries but to what extent the injuries were, we don't have that information at this time."
Perhaps in an effort to quell public concern, police held off on calling the death a homicide.
"This is being treated as a suspicious death," the spokesman added.
"As is routine in these situations, our homicide section is now involved in the investigation as well."
Not widely reported at the time was that a 31-year-old man suffered non-life threatening injuries during a part of the altercation that preceeded the death police were investigating.
The crime scene was extensive.
Evidence markers littered the west sidewalk on 124th Street, tracking a long blood trail.
Residents were inconvenienced as the alley behind the Amora and Ivy Manor apartments, between 124th and 125th Streets, was blocked off.
Several tarps were laid on the the parking lots and adjacent lane, protecting evidence.
Of particular interest was the entrance of one of the units of the Amora block – see images »
The parking lots behind the buildings were also subject to scrutiny – see images »
Blood was also found on the south side of 112th Avenue next to a commercial bulding – see images »
Homicide detectives arrived, first checking the scene before working the knock-and-talks – see images »
The police search of the area, which would last two full days, expanded to include neighbouring yards and even building rooftops. Nearby businesses where checked to see if surveillance footage was available – see images »
What they were looking for or what was found police didn't say.
To some, the investigative effort seemed more intensive than usual – suggesting a sensitive or high-profile crime may have been committed.
A family member later said the dead man's apartment (which was in one of the two apartment buildings subject to police focus) was covered in blood.
Investgators had yet to reveal where the initial assault took place and whose bloodtrail marked the two-block area.
While staking out a rather static-looking crime scene, media gathered additional material by stopping passersby, luckily coming across the man who first saw the body and made the 911 call – read more »
"At the beginning, honestly, I didn't thnk it was a big deal," Steve Cadieux said.
"I just called the ambulance because I saw somebody who was on the ground and I didn't see anybody around. At that time I thought he might need something."
Cadieux was asked to recall what he saw.
"I saw by the window, a body laying on the ground in front of an apartment with the door open. He was hurt. I won't say details.
"And after 15 minutes – because I was just playing video games – he was still there, then I thought maybe he needs help."
Cadieux said he didn't recognise the man.
"Ah, he's just a person on the ground. I'm not going to go into detail but he was on the ground when the police and the ambulance came they did their job," he said.
When EMS arrived, they called police. Cadieux, who didn't seem to know the extent of the man's injuries, was asked what his first inkling was that this was something serious.
"I kinda realised it was not just a drunk guy when they (police) started to wake up everybody, asking questions."
Cadieux was surprised to hear that the man had died.
"I was kind of hoping he was all right, but if he passed away, he passed away, he said.
Having just moved from Montreal to escape that city's high crime rate, Cadieux also didn't know about Edmonton's reputation for homicide until media told him.
"Yah, right ... I guess welcome to Edmonton," he responded, laughing it off.
No one had heard anything overnight. Some didn't even know something very serious had happened as they went about their usual morning business.
"Until I got out there to take my car out. They said, no no don't move your car – it's in a crime scene," Casey Frans said.
He was asked what sort of questions police had for him.
"Well the usual – did I hear anything, see anything."
Workers at a building just south of the crime scene expressed surprise when hearing of the tragedy.
"It just worries me about the area. Our business is here," Ian Fletcher said. "I know it's not something you want to see in the morning."
Megan Kawecki echoed the remarks.
"It's a little scary. I mean I work here ... sometimes I come here a little later so ... just got to be on your guard I guess," Kawecki said.
A reporter told the woman the death could be the city's 29th homicide of the year.
"That's a little scary. I mean our murder rate shouldn't be that high," Kawecki said. "What are you going to do .... you just got to watch yourself I guess."
Inglewood - a bad neighbourhood?
The suspicious death had all the hallmarks of a murder (the "shocking totals" panel on the Edmonton Sun's front page dealt with the city's other rate of concern for the year: the mosquito population).
"It's not the greatest neighbourhood but I didn't think it was quite that bad," Megan Kawecki said.
"There's a lot of drug dealers and stuff that live in the neighbourhood," she noted.
"You see them out here all the time. You can see junkies around, walking around ... like people are always drunk around here."
The woman said she makes sure she leaves the neighbourhood by six o'clock.
Those who called the neighbourhood home also expressed fear in wake of the display of yellow crime scene tape – read more »
"I'm scared now, I mean it's just right over there," one woman said, pointing to the alley cordoned off by police tape.
A 27-year-old man, a Tiffany Court resident, said the crime in the neighbourhood left him fearful for his children's safety.
"It's scary, yeah, of course it is," he said. "I'm scared ... I have babies and it makes me scared for them."
The refused to give his name to reporters out of fear of retaliation. He said living in Edmonton was getting more frightening with each passing murder.
"It's crazy now, we are the worst in the country. There are gangs, and people die for nothing, no reason at all," he said. "I bet this fight was over something stupid and now a man is dead."
Another resident said there were always fights or shouting late at night, adding that police are often called to the area.
"I'm nervous even living in this neighbourhood," he said. "When I moved here I was told, don't go out at night."
While those travelling up and down 124th Street might sometimes spot a rail-thin woman standing on a street corner or two, the real activity takes place in the neighbourhood's alleys. Out of sight from patrol cars, more people seem to use the lanes than the sidewalks.
They include the homeless picking through plentiful garbage bins behind the street's numerous walk-ups ... and groups of two or three young men who look like the type the average citizen wouldn't want to meet alone on a dark night.
More about recent violent crime the Inglewood neighbourhood can be read here.
Another Somali death
On July 17th, 2011, police confirmed they were dealing with homcide number 29 for the year.
The victim was identified as 25-year-old Ahmed Ismail-Sheikh – the fourth Somali man to die on Edmonton streets in 2011. His name was also added to a still-growing list of men from Somalia and the Horn of Africa to have lost their lives working and living in Alberta – read more »
On January 1st, 2011, 23-year-old Mohamud Mohamed Jama was fatally shot inside the Papyrus Restaurant and Lounge on 107th Avenue. Despite a room full of witnesses, no arrests have been made.
On May 19th, 2011, 20-year-old Yusuf Abdirahim was found by police lying on the road near 149th Avenue and 71st Street after he suffered a serious head injury sustained during an assault. He died two days later in hospital. Citing self-defence, police did not lay charges – something that didn't sit well with Abdirahim's family and eye-witnesses.
A detective called the June 3rd, 2011, homicide of 43-year-old Abdi Ali Mohamud unlike any he had dealt with before – but he refused to release details. The acting police chief said Edmontonians had nothing to fear if they minded their own business – but then it turned out Mohamud's death was a case of mistaken identity. The Somali community expressed fear and outrage.
For more about the trend of deaths in Alberta, see the Last Link's So many Somalis page.
Cause of Ismail-Sheikh's death was not released.
Staff Sgt. Bill Clark said the investigation was going "very well" and he was confident it would be solved soon thanks to cooperative witnesses.
Unlike past Somali murders that have been thought to be linked to drugs, gangs or criminal activity, Ismail-Sheikh's death seemed unusually straightforward.
"It's more of a house party that went out of control," Clark said.
"Some of them have been because the people who are involved in these are involved in criminal activities.
"That has spurred a lot of the reasons behind the violence, but as far as last week's we don't see that same tie-in," he clarified
Still, Ismail-Sheikh's death had its impact on the local Somali community – read more »
"It's very devastating," Mohamed Abdi, spokesman for the Somali Canadian Cultural Society of Edmonton, said reacting to the news.
Abdi said many of the Somalis killed in Alberta in the last five years were from Ontario who had moved west to find jobs.
But what then leads to their deaths was something Abdi and others were struggling to understand. In the past, police have blamed gangs and drugs.
"I don't understand what's happening here," Abdi said. "It's hard to understand the whole issue sometimes. This is very sad. We've had enough."
Ismail-Sheikh had no criminal record and was not involved in shady activities, a family friend told Abdi.
"This friend was telling me the victim was not involved in trouble," Abdi said. "He was a nice person, he was working full-time."
The character study was backed up by Ahmed Hussen who knew Ismail-Sheikh's father.
"He just arrived after the school year was over," the president of the Canadian Somali Congress said.
The 25-year-old had moved to Edmonton in the spring after completing his third year of university in Toronto. Other reports indicated he had moved to the Alberta capital two years ago to find work and he had a brother and cousin living here.
Ismail-Sheikh's parents flew in from Ontario after receiving the news.
They entered their son's apartment to find the bedroom covered in blood, Abdi said.
"It's terrible," he said. "It's a gruesome scene."
On July 19th, 2011, friends, family and members of the Somali community, including who didn't know the man, gathered for yet another funeral.
"The community always stands by their members and help their families with funeral arrangements," Abdi explained.
He noted the Edmonton Somali community, which numbers between 10,000 and 15,000, was on edge now more than ever. There was a lot of talk of families moving back to Toronto.
"It's getting scarier now. There's too much trouble in town now. Everyone has to turn up to work on minimizing or eradicating these crimes. We're all worried. It's not only the Somali community," Abdi said.
"Every month we're back here for a funeral," Mohamed Abdirahman said. "It's like a killing field. It's a lot of funerals.
"Every month there are people going back to Toronto. People came here with their kids to find a better life and this happens. People ask themselves, 'What if the next time it's my kids?'
"Something has to be done. Someone out there knows something," Abdirahman said.
Mayor Stephen Mandel said the city was working with local Somalis to find a solution to the homicide rate plaguing Edmonton Somalis.
"When events like this happen, its devastating to the family," he said. "There seems too much of a propensity in the Somali community for this to happen."
However, Mandel said answers may not come quickly.
"We do more and more to make sure the safety of people, but it's not as easy as one thinks," he said. "It's a big issue, we need to try to get to the bottom of it. Whether we find solutions immediately is a different story but we will try to do the best we can."
Police were also working with the community, a spokesman said.
"What I can tell you is there has been an ongoing relationship with the Somali community that is going to continue. Obviously our goal is to try to bring an end to these senseless deaths. That's the goal for the Somali community, that's the goal for the EPS," the spokesman said.
"This is a big setback," Abdi said. "That guy was completely innocent and had a clean record. Now it's scarier than ever before."
Edmonton - a bad city?
Among Somali families living back east is the perception that Alberta isn't a safe place for young men, according to Ahmed Hussen, the Canadian Somali Congress president.
The Edmonton Somali community is the largest outside of southern Ontario (home to about 80,000).
"I've been with mothers in different situations and they've been making phone calls and saying, 'Maybe you should come back to Toronto,' " he related – read more »
That concern extends only to young males – no one is worried about the older guys or the young women, Hussen said.
"They're fixated on the young men. The perception has set in for the community that Alberta is not safe for young Canadian-Somali males. Each killing just reinforces that. This year hasn't been a good year."
The homicide rate of Somali-Canadians in Toronto is much lower than in Edmonton despite despite a population that's five times the size.
"It tends to be young men who left their parents in Ontario, telling them, 'I'm going to get a job in booming Alberta,' " Hussen said. "So you have young men with no parental supervision and the community isn't really connected to them.
"In Toronto ... the only reason people are connected is because their families are there. So it's harder for the person to get into a situation where they're untethered from their family," Hussen stated.
"Any death within our community is problematic but the frequency and absolute numbers per capita against all the other numbers in Edmonton is quite shocking. There doesn't seem to be an established pattern to the killing of Somali Canadians in Edmonton," Hussen noted.
"So we don't have enough information to talk about patterns but we are concerned about absolute numbers. It's a very tragic figure and the fact that it is still going on is of great concern to the community."
Hussen called on the City of Edmonton to do more to tackle the problem, adding the city needs to show more leadership.
"When sort of dealing with the subject, we become the subject," he said. "So instead of micro-managing the Canadian Somali Organization they should treat us as Canadians who are part and parcel of Edmonton and integral to the future and safety of that city."
Hussen pointed to the July 5th, 2011, media launch where he helped introduce iniatives designed by local Somalis to enage at-risk youth and those who may know of crimes within their community.
A series of posters were unveiled, a help line was set up, and plans for a drop-in centre were announced. While a representative from the Edmonton Police Service attended, no one from the city was on hand.
"With that kind of murder rate, if I was in city administration, I would be issuing instructions that this would be an all hands on deck situation. We just don't sense that," Hussen said.
Reaction to the program has been positive, with youth hotline proving particularly popular. The latest homicide in the community highlighted the importance of such initiatives, Hussen added.
"We are doing the right thing – we have to keep at it."
While he's deeply concerned about violence against the Somali community, mayor Stephen Mandel took exception to the finger-pointing.
"It's not as easy as one thinks," he said. "Hopefully, we can work with the Somali community to see why their community is becoming so much more challenged than other ones."
Mandel added he has had a number of private talks with newly-installed police chief Rod Knecht about the Somali killings.
"We talked about ways in which we might try to get in front of the problem, but the issue was there doesn't seem to be any trends. But maybe in the Somali community there might be more trends than others," Mandel said.
"The reality is we're always concerned when any community is represented in four homicides and want to find out what's going on in that community that is creating a more violent atmosphere," he said, adding he had asked police for background information on the three previous Somali homicides.
Mandel hinted that initiatives to address the homicide rate were forthcoming but he wouldn't elaborate.
"We think we are going to be putting into place some interesting things out of our office in co-operation with the chief's office. This is very disconcerting for all of us to see this happen in one particular community. We need to take some proactive steps but we need to get a bit more background information on what's happened," Mandel said.
Edmonton's community service department was in the process of building an outreach team with a specific focus on Somali and African youth, according to director Harry Oswin.
The team would try to engage youth in leadership and volunteer programs, also offer life-skills programming and help with applying for citizenship, Oswin said.
Interviews to select a co-ordinator for the team had just been completed, with A member of the Somali community sitting in.
The co-ordinator was to be out in the community by early August, Oswin said, and two or three part-time staff may also be hired.
"This needs to be a mobile approach," Oswin said.
Police chief Knecht cautioned against hope for quick results, saying overall violence has been building for the past decade.
"It will take a few years to turn things around, or shorter, as long as there is participation by the greater community," Knecht said, sidestepping any direct reference to the Somali deaths in particular.
Knecht said a violence reduction strategy would be rolled out in September and would involve innovative and creative solutions based on intelligence gathering, education along with input from affected community members.
A welcome arrest
On July 20th, 2011 police announced that 22-year-old Arab Mursal Sugule had been charged with second-degree murder, assault causing bodily harm, two counts of possession of a weapon, and obstructing a police officer.
Investigators said that Sugule and Ismail-Sheikh were known to each other, and that the accused also knew the 31-year-old man who suffered non-life threatening injuries in a second fight at the scene.
Police also confirmed they were not looking for any other suspects and that the incident did not appear drug or gang-related.
"One of the concerns we've always had as a community is that homicide cases have slowly been turning cold," Ahmed Hussen, national president of the Canadian Somali Congress, said. "This is a welcome arrest."
Police were likely also relieved. The vast majority of Somali killings remain unsolved, with investigative efforts thwarted by uncooperative witnesses. Hussen hoped the arrest would inspire witnesses of other crimes to come forward.
"It certainly helps," he said. "It also helps as a deterrent for anybody thinking of committing an aggravated assault or homicide."
Media temptation
Crime scenes often leave behind graphic reminders of what has taken place.
Usually before the general public and media are allowed back into such an area, the evidence is usually cleaned up and washed away.
But in the case of Ismail-Sheikh's murder, an unguarded solitary traffic cone outside the yellow tape during an active investigation proved too much temptation to resist for one reporter – see images »
CTV Edmonton's David Ewasuk showed remarkable restraint by not getting anywhere near the cone, including it only in a shot during B-roll footage.
Global Edmonton's Fletcher Kent only made reference to the marker by walking over to it and pointing, leaving it to his cameraman to provide viewers a closer look.
But CBC Edmonton's Scott Fralick decided to take a more hands-on approach ...
... by kneeling down and actually placing his fingers between the blood stains ...
... before leaving viewers with a lingering shot ... redefining the old axiom: if it bleeds, it leads.
All the information presented on this page has been compiled primarily from published media reports and should not be interpreted as having legal bearing or other prejudice against the individuals named on this web site.
The Last Link on the Left practices fair presentation and the disclosure of relevant interests.
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