Trial underway for man charged in 2014 murder at lounge
Surveillance video will identify victim, accused and witnesses, Crown says
Surveillance video seized from a lounge that was the site of a 2014 fatal shooting will identify a “cast of characters” who are pivotal to the prosecution’s case in a murder trial, court heard Monday.
Luqman Jama Osman is on trial for second-degree murder in the death of 31-year-old Bekri Mohamed, who was shot and killed at Papyrus Lounge at 11124 107 Ave. on Nov. 5, 2014.
During an opening statement on Monday, Crown prosecutor Orysha Zahaylo said that surveillance footage seized from the lounge will identify not only the victim and accused in the case, but also civilian witnesses who will be called to testify about what transpired that night, and about an alleged disagreement between Osman and Mohamed prior to the shooting.
Zahaylo said court will also hear from a man who was an acquaintances of Osman, and was with him that night when he saw him throw a gun in a dumpster.
According to an agreed statement of facts entered as an exhibit in the trial, police recovered a loaded Smith & Wesson handgun during their investigation.
The agreed facts also reveal that a single bullet struck Mohamed in the chest, piercing his heart’s right ventricle and the left lobe of his liver. An autopsy found that his cause of death was blood loss.
Video footage taken by police after they arrived at the scene shows Mohamed, lifeless, lying on his back on the lounge’s floor.
When officers first arrived at Papyrus, two women were giving Mohamed first aid in an interior hallway, according to the agreed statement of facts. He appeared not to be breathing, and the officers dragged him to an open area where they performed chest compressions until EMS arrived.
Court heard the trial will hear from multiple expert witnesses, in addition to investigators in the case.
In the aftermath of the shooting, police issued a Canada-wide warrant for Osman’s arrest, releasing a photograph of him to the public. When city police announced his arrest, they said that Osman was discovered in Montreal. He had refused to identify himself to Quebec police during a traffic stop, but they were able to identify him through his fingerprints and realized he was wanted for murder in Alberta, city police said in 2015.
Mohamed was the second man to die in a shooting at the lounge, which lost its business licence in June 2015 after a number of violent and problematic incidents. In addition to Mohamed being killed and another man being shot dead there in 2011, police and bylaw officials visited the property a number of times before its closure, including on two other occasions when shots were fired.