Guilty verdict in Edmonton truck attack
Officer stabbed, four pedestrians mowed down
EDMONTON • Const. Mike Chernyk was manning a game-day traffic post outside Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton on a Saturday evening in 2017 when he heard an engine rev and saw headlights. He dove to his left but it was too late. Chernyk flew through the air, landing on his back a few feet away, near the parking lot of a Crown Liquor at 92 Street and 107A Avenue.
Two dog walkers ran to the downed officer’s aid. They assumed the driver had accidentally hit Chernyk. They were a few feet away when the driver emerged from the white Chevy Malibu. He had a knife.
The armed man fell upon Chernyk, stabbing first his protected chest and then his head. He eventually changed tactics, reaching for the officer’s gun with his free hand. Chernyk fought back, gained the advantage, and pushed the man off. The assailant ran north down 92 Street. Chernyk pulled his gun but didn’t have a clear shot. He didn’t follow for fear he’d pass out.
Police launched a manhunt. But Abdulahi Hasan Sharif evaded them, and made his way to a U-haul he had rented earlier that day.
By the time police stopped his frantic ride through downtown Edmonton, he had struck four pedestrians, all of whom survived.
A jury on Friday found him guilty of five counts of attempted murder, along with aggravated assault against the officer, criminal flight causing bodily harm and dangerous driving.
One male juror wiped away tears as the verdict was read.
Sharif, a 32-year-old Somali refugee, represented himself at the three week trial after firing his lawyer. He declined to cross-examine any of the 41 witnesses called by the Crown.
Greg Lazin, a lawyer who was appointed by the court to help Sharif, said it was one of his most difficult trials in 37 years. Sharif refused to speak to him.
“How do I explain it? I don’t. I can’t,” Lazin said outside court on Friday.
Police found an ISIL flag in the car used to strike Chernyk, then-edmonton police chief Rod Knecht said they were investigating the incidents as “acts of terrorism.” The detail made international news. However, the Crown never brought any terrorism-related charges, and the word “terrorism” was never uttered in front of the jury.
Instead, the Crown argued Sharif had intended to cause as much “chaos, destruction and indiscriminate death as possible” that night, without elaborating on motive. Lazin presented another theory of the case: Sharif might have simply been trying to flee police in the U-haul.
At 11:31 p.m. on Sept. 30, 2017, several hours after the Chernyk attack, two officers at a traffic checkpoint noticed the U-haul in a line of vehicles. The first to spot it was rookie Const. Brodie Quenneville Thorpe, who had been on the street for just eight days. He told court the man behind the wheel matched the suspect description and had a noticeable lump on his forehead. The driver handed his licence to Thorpe’s partner, Sgt. Roy Paulino, but sped off southbound on Wayne Gretzky Drive.
Thorpe and Paulino jumped in their cruiser. The U-haul exited onto 106 Avenue, leading a growing tail of police vehicles down the hill to the Dawson Bridge.
The U-haul sped up the hill and tore through the turn at 95 Street and Jasper Avenue, running red lights and driving left of centre.
At 109 Street, the U-haul turned north, then immediately into the alley by the Pint Public House. One witness outside the bar heard tires screech. The truck hit Paul Biegel, launching the 22-yearold over a barrier along the wall of the bar. A split second later, it hit Jack Zubick, who was a short distance down the alley.
Innes and Const. Jay Reinelt had turned north on 108 Street a few seconds earlier. When they saw headlights speeding down the alley, Reinelt threw the SUV in reverse. He wanted to end the pursuit by ramming the truck.
A block later, the truck turned south on 107 Street. It mounted the curb and sent Jordan Stewardson and Kimberly O’hara flying.
O’hara testified at trial that the last thing she remembers that night was leaving a bowling alley in south Edmonton. She suffered a head injury and a broken leg and had no memory of even being on Jasper Avenue. For several weeks, she couldn’t understand verbal language.
The investigation would involve 367 officers, one of the largest in Edmonton police history.