Victim was a suspect in 2014 killing
The man shot dead in a hail of gunfire outside a troubled westend eatery Sunday morning in the city’s second weekend homicide was once under investigation for his suspected role in the 2014 unsolved killing of Jabeir Jemmie.
Abdi Jama, 26, also known by the street name “Ajax,” was shot multiple times around 6 a.m. in a Shillington Avenue parking lot where a large group had congregated.
Jama had previously been inside eatery The Suya Spot, long heralded by nearby residents and police as a problem area. The restaurant is well-known to anti-gang and drug officers for its clientele.
Police believe Jama’s death is gang-related.
Once shots were fired, Jama was carted into a black Cadillac SUV and driven to the nearby Royal Ottawa Hospital in a clear attempt to get the bullet-riddled man medical attention.
Police received multiple 911 calls alerting them to the gunfire, but found no victims once they arrived at the parking lot at Shillington Avenue and Merivale Road. Staff at the Royal alerted police and paramedics that Jama was at that hospital, where doctors attempted to work on him until paramedics arrived and took him to the Civic’s trauma centre, where the 26-yearold was pronounced dead.
A cluster of bodies and the sudden outbreak of violence Sunday morning was not unlike the scene that took place on Elgin Street when Jabeir Jemmie, 21, was stabbed several times in the abdomen in August 2014 after leaving now defunct nightclub The Living Room. Jemmie’s killing remains the only unsolved homicide of 2014, with detectives never having collected the evidence necessary to charge someone.
Jama is believed to have been at the club and in the mélée that took Jemmie’s life. His role was being investigated right up until Sunday, when police began investigating his own death.
A friend, who asked not to be named, said Jama, who had a young daughter, “had such a big personality.”
“He always took care of his family, even if it wasn’t his blood family,” the friend said. “If he had love for you, you were family in his eyes.
“When Ajax stepped in the room, you felt his presence, and it’s heartbreaking to know he’s gone.”
Jama’s killing was the second in as many days in what was a violent weekend in the capital. The homicide squad was called to Elmira Drive in the Pinecrest area just after 2 a.m. Saturday. In an unrelated shooting, Jacob Thompson, 40, was shot twice in the chest outside his girlfriend’s home. He was pronounced dead at hospital.
Investigators are being met with apathy from the Pinecrest community and are asking for the public’s assistance, while activist community members from Carlington are dead-set on seeing the restaurant that they feel is the heart of that area’s trouble permanently shuttered.
The Suya Spot, which keeps odd hours, claims to serve African barbecue, but it has gained a reputation for being more of an after-hours nightclub that stays open until dawn. It has been charged by Ottawa bylaw officers a number of times in the past, most recently for serving alcohol without a licence.
Police have admitted to community activists that “hundreds of hours have been dedicated by the Ottawa Police Service to the issues surrounding this establishment,” according to a series of emails obtained by the Citizen.
There have been three other shootings besides Jama’s in or around the parking lot outside the Suya Spot since 2013.
In November 2015 two shots were fired at a vehicle parked outside the restaurant. In August 2014, 17 shots were fired in the parking lot. And in October 2013, a drive-by shooting near the establishment sent a man to hospital with chest wounds.
River ward Coun. Riley Brockington said that when he was canvassing the area prior to being elected to city council in 2014, several area residents were very vocal about their desire to see The Suya Spot closed. After he was elected, he said, he met with the business’s owner and the landlord who leases the restaurant space. Brockington said it’s time for another meeting.
“The community, through me and others, needs to send a very clear message to the landlord supporting this business and the business owner, that you’re time has run out here,” said Brockington. “There has been too many instances here at this intersection and linked with this business and we now have a 26-year-old male dead.”
Attempts to reach the owners of The Suya Spot were unsuccessful. The restaurant was closed on Sunday and its listed phone number rings through to an Ottawa property management firm.
Neighbour Marguerite Dehler said she has witnessed fights, public intoxication and indecent acts outside the restaurant. She led a community fight against The Suya Spot in 2014 to ensure the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario denied its application for a liquor licence.
“They were disqualified. They started hosting parties. The restaurant barely operates during restaurant hours. It’s just a party joint on the weekends. Every time, it’s horrendous. The neighbours are sick and tired,” Dehler said.
Brockington said that while the area has its problems he still believes it is a safe community.
“This intersection in Carlington has certainly had its challenges over the years with a number of things,” he said. “The Carlington Community ... has … made significant improvements over the years and I am pleased to see all the engagement, the gentrification going on, the investments by the city and others in the community.
“I don’t want people to characterize this as a bad community or an unsafe community.”
Ottawa police said they are very concerned about the escalating gun violence in the city.
“We are obviously seeing an increase in gun violence,” Duty Insp. Sean McDade said. “We’re very concerned for public safety.”
Coun. Rick Chiarelli, in whose College ward Thompson was killed, said he wants to know if the issue is one of police resources and thinks it’s time to revisit talks about police budgets and officer allocation.
“It’s kind of a wake-up call to everybody in the city,” Chiarelli said. “And we have to help police get control of the situation in all parts of the city. You get fear being struck in the hearts of people across the city.”
Police have made no arrests in either killing, the city’s 12th and 13th homicides, and the 46th and 47th shootings of 2016. Both sets of numbers are inching close to records.