Man charged in Toronto murders had pleaded guilty in 2013 probe
The man charged this week in two separate downtown Toronto homicides — one of which involved multiple gunshot victims — pleaded guilty four years ago to possessing a loaded handgun after being swept up in the massive Project Traveller investigation.
That 2013 Toronto police guns and gang project will forever be remembered for its connection to former mayor Rob Ford, who was surreptitiously videotaped smoking crack cocaine by two members of the Dixon City Bloods, the west-end gang targeted by police.
According to a copy of his May 12, 2015, guilty plea, Ibrahim Khair was sentenced to four years and six months for possessing a loaded Smith and Wesson handgun. Accounting for three years and nine days of pretrial custody, Khiar was ordered to serve another year, five months and 21 days in custody.
Khiar, now 33, was arrested Wednesday at Bathurst and Dundas Sts. and charged with first-degree murder in the Feb. 8 death of Jaunoi Christian, 24, and second-degree murder in the July 4, 2018, death of Mercel Teme, 19. Teme was shot three days before his death in a Kensington Market shooting that sent three others to hospital.
Khiar had been on the lam since last summer, whenpolice issued a warrant for his arrest over the Kensington Market shooting. Khiar is also facing three counts of discharge firearm endangering life in connection with that shooting.
Christian was gunned down while standing in the doorway of a nightclub on Queen St, just east of Parliament St., earlier this month.
Khiar faces numerous other offences including carrying a concealed weapon — a firearm he was allegedly carrying at the time of his arrest.
Homicide Det. Stephen Matthews said video surveillance played a key role in his arrest.
In another case, a judge in January 2015 found Khiar not guilty of conspiring to traffic firearms, giving him “the benefit” of doubt in the case.
“The defendant is evidently involved in high-risk activity; firearms and ammunition are inherently hazardous,” Superior Court Justice Edward Morgan wrote in his ruling acquitting Khiar.
“But I do not know whether he is part of a distribution and trafficking scheme, or is an end user of the weapons. There is a reasonable doubt as to whether his activity amounts to participation in a conspiracy to traffic, and the defendant must get the benefit of that doubt.”
The judge added he hoped the experience would prompt Khiar “to turn his energies to activities that are beneficial, and less dangerous, to himself and the community around him.”