Killing at nightclub was self-defence, lawyer says
When Mustafa Ahmed shot and killed gang leader Omar “Esco” Rashid-Ghader in a ByWard Market nightclub on Aug. 14, 2016, it was in self-defence and against a backdrop of fear — one the shooter had experienced as a kid growing up in a south-end public housing project.
Ahmed, as a kid, idolized “Esco” because he was the face of the neighbourhood and the leader of the notorious gang Ledbury-Banff Crips, and according to Ahmed's testimony, nothing happened without “Esco's go-ahead.”
Ahmed looked up to Rashid-Ghader and longed to become a member of the street gang because once “you're made, nobody messes with you,” he testified at his second-degree murder trial.
In closing arguments on Monday, his lead defence lawyer, Solomon Friedman, urged Ontario Superior Court Justice Ronald Laliberté to find his client not guilty and see the case through the killer's eyes — taking into account Ahmed's life experiences. This was a boy who started dealing weed in Grade 9, only to go on to sell crack a few years later, and continue on as an adult until he was arrested for the killing of Rashid- Ghader.
Friedman told court that Ahmed risked his life by testifying, but had to because “he's on trial for his life.”
While Ahmed testified, he never named street names, or real names. To do so, could have put his life in danger as inmates regularly get attacked or even killed for turning state's evidence.
Friedman told the judge that Ahmed's life experiences and the element of fear were key in the case. He painted Ahmed as a most candid witness who routinely implicated only himself in crimes — including offences he's never been charged with.
Ahmed had previously told court that he shot Rashid-Ghader in self-defence after the gang leader swung a champagne bottle at his head and then grabbed him from behind in the nightclub well after last call.
Friedman told the judgealone trial that Ahmed was not guilty and stressed that the Crown had not proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt. He also told court that Ahmed only drew his handgun after he was attacked, while wrestling on the floor. The killing was captured on the bar's security video footage and was played in court.
Crown prosecutor Matthew Geigen-Miller, in closing arguments Monday, presented Ahmed as anything but candid and branded his testimony as self-serving, misleading and convenient. The prosecutor reminded the judge of all the times he couldn't recall the names of criminal associates, or even their street names. The prosecutor also said he sympathized with Ahmed's predicament — notably that naming names could get him hurt or killed. (Ahmed, who hasn't named any names, is in jail while he's on trial.)
Rashid-Ghader, 33, led a double life that saw him as a devoted family man by day and a drug-dealing aspiring rapper by night, complete with VIP treatment in the ByWard Market scene, court heard.
His wife, who also testified at trial, said she didn't realize that her late husband's nickname, “Esco,” was a street name until she read about it in the Citizen after the nightclub shooting.
Ahmed has admitted to killing Rashid- Ghader, and said he fired twice in self-defence after being attacked at the now-defunct Sentral nightclub on Dalhousie Street.
Re: Planning committee says council should approve latest, and possibly final, Château Laurier design, Feb. 5.
Ironically, we who defend the Château Laurier “as is” are being accused of being oldfashioned and stuck in the past. In fact, what we argue is progressive, somewhat radical and pushing back against the mainstream.
Neo-modernism (the boxy unornamented style) is not current either — it's based on last-century assumptions and sensibilities that came out of modernism, from the early 1900s. The château was built in 1912 (and added to in 1929) — around the same period as the “modern” Gropius/Bauhaus style.
So let's see what people like and want. Ask people why they love the château. It isn't because of the 1960s modernist garage that was thankfully torn down, opening up the interior for all to see. It's the castle, stupid!
Robin Collins, Ottawa