THE VICTIM
The victim in Sunday morning’s shooting had numerous run-ins with the law.
In September 2003, Rashid-Ghader was one of eight people charged after a knife fight in the area of Ledbury Avenue and Banff Street, the place that would give rise to the street gang.
Then, in June 2004, as police revved up efforts to take down the increasingly violent gang, Rashid-Ghader, then just 20, was charged with conspiracy to traffic cocaine and breach of recognizance.
He faced more criminal charges that November after gang members stormed into a south-side eatery. They were officially using the spot as their headquarters, despite not being welcome.
Rashid-Ghader was arrested alongside four other members who police alleged smashed the front windows of the bar with stones and assaulted customers and staff over two nights. Rashid-Ghader was charged with aggravated assault, assault, intimidation, mischief over $5,000, causing a disturbance and various weapons charges.
In January 2009, Rashid-Ghader was arrested in the west end after police searched a rental car he was driving and found rocks of crack cocaine both inside the car and on him and $540. He was later searched at the police station, where police found another $300 and 6.5 grams of crack. He was charged with cocaine trafficking.
A judge ruled in 2010 that the police search was warrantless and found that, even though Rashid-Ghader made several “unbelievable” statements, the officers’ accounts were also inconsistent and tossed out the drug evidence against Rashid-Ghader.
He testified himself that he was a drug dealer but that the drugs weren’t in plain view when police began searching him and the rental car. He told court that he had hidden the crack between his butt cheeks, but had some in his pocket for the $60 deal he was expecting to make.
Back then, worried about being ripped off by other dealers, RashidGhader didn’t pull the drugs out until he had the cash in his hands.
Today, members of the Ledbury-Banff Crips no longer unite under that name.