Bouncer gives account at trial into ByWard nightclub shooting
The unpredictable violence in the ByWard Market nightclub scene was on full, unvarnished display in Courtroom 34 on Wednesday as security footage capturing the 2016 killing of Omar Rashid-Ghader was shown.
Rashid-Ghader was shot inside the now-defunct Sentral nightclub after grabbing a friend from behind and swinging a bottle at his head.
At his friend-turned-killer's second-degree murder trial at the Ottawa courthouse on Wednesday, defence lawyer Solomon Friedman, in a cross-examination of a bouncer, took the court on a tour of the nightclub scene on the other side of midnight.
It's a scene where things can go “from peace to violence in a second,” Friedman told court.
David Jean was a bouncer working the deadly shift and described the unpredictable violence of the nightclub scene.
Some patrons are patted down for weapons, but other so-called “VIPs” don't get searched on the way in. These are the regulars who sit in a private section and spend lots of money on bottle service, which means you pay $1,000 for an $80 bottle of champagne.
Mustafa Ahmed, 32, has already admitted a series of facts, including that he shot and killed Rashid- Ghader, 33, at the nightclub on the morning of Aug. 14, 2016. He shot him twice in the chest, with one of the hollow-point bullets piercing his heart.
One of the VIPs that night was Rashid-Ghader, whose street name was “Esco” after the late Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.
The fight that left Rashid- Ghader in a pool of blood on the floor caught security staff off guard. It was past last call when around 3:20 a.m., the fight began with Rashid- Ghader first grabbing Ahmed from behind and then swinging a bottle at his head.
The bouncer testified that he saw the commotion just six feet away and immediately went to break up the fight. He had his hand tucked under Rashid-Ghader's arm, but when he heard gunshots — which he thought came from the front of the bar — he let go. They were wrestling on the floor when Ahmed fired two rounds into Rashid-Ghader's chest.
Jean told court that he let go and went to the front because he thought he heard two shots from that direction and then more outside, up to four — but there were only two bullets fired, court heard.
If it hadn't been for the gunshots, the bouncer said he would have done everything he could to break up the fight.
Moments after Ahmed shot his friend, he's seen on security video standing up from the floor, tucking his handgun into his waistband and leaving the bar with his hoodie pulled down. In opening statements earlier this week, assistant Crown attorney Michael Purcell said Ahmed left calmly as if nothing had happened. He didn't check on his dying friend on the way out. He simply took a cab and lived as a fugitive for 18 months before his arrest.
The prosecutor's opening remarks at the judge-alone trial earlier this week did not mention a motive. The case is anchored in security footage that captured the fight and shooting, but it's grainy and the camera didn't catch all the angles. There's also no audio.
Rashid- Ghader, an aspiring rapper, and Ahmed were both original members of the now-defunct street gang Ledbury-Banff Crips, named after two streets in a southend public housing project.