Hamilton murder victim’s mom hunts for answers ... a world away
Abdalla Hassan, 17, died April 15 after being shot in the back of the head
THE MOTHER of Abdalla Hassan says she is desperate to travel to Canada from Abu Dhabi to find answers after learning of her son’s death a world away in Hamilton.
The 17-year-old died after being shot in the back of the head April 15 — the second homicide of the year in Hamilton.
He was found in his family’s vehicle after it crashed in a wooded embankment in rural Dundas and three teenage boys, who cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, are charged with firstdegree murder.
Manal Awny Mohamed Abuobaidalla said she has not seen her son in five years and only learned of his death through news reports.
She and her son, whose name she spells as Abdulla, were separated when his father brought him to Canada in 2014.
“I cannot understand what happened. I cannot speak (with) or see my son. I cannot sleep,” she said in a telephone interview, adding she had to be hospitalized after the shock of losing her oldest son.
Abuobaidalla is desperate for answers. What was her son doing with those boys in Dundas? How did he know them? Why was he killed?
She claims her son was taken against her wishes and that she has only spoken with him by phone or
“I cannot understand what happened, I cannot speak (with) or see my son, I cannot sleep.” MANAL AWNY MOHAMED ABUOBAIDALLA The mother of Abdalla Hassan
social media since.
She shared documents, social media, text conversations and photos of her son with The Spectator. Her family has also been in touch with Hamilton police.
Det. Sgt. Steve Bereziuk declined to comment further on the homicide as the case is now before the courts.
A family agreement document dated March 17, 2015, shared from Abu Dhabi with The Spectator, states Abuobaidalla had custody of Hassan, who was by then in Canada. It orders his father to bring the boy back every August.
Abuobaidalla claimed this never happened. She has tried to come to Canada several times, but said she could not obtain a travel visa.
Now she is once again trying to get one from the embassy.
Hassan’s parents divorced. They both remarried and had more children. It was with his current wife that the father came to Canada. The family in Canada has asked for privacy through Hamilton police and does not want to speak with the media.
Abuobaidalla’s grief has been heightened by confusion, as some family members are falsely claiming the 17-year-old’s death was an accident.
In the years before his death, her son told her he wanted to save money and come back to see her, Abuobaidalla said. He complained to her about his life here, she said.
But there were also things going on he wouldn’t talk about.
When another family member told Abuobaidalla about troubling posts on social media, she confronted her son and says he denied anything was wrong.
“Every day, he uploaded bad things,” she said. He was not “walking straight.”
Little is known about what led to the homicide. Because the teen boys — two 16-year-olds and a 15-year-old — are charged under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, no identifying information can be shared. This includes where they went to school and what else may have been going on in their lives.
Police have only said Hassan’s family came to Canada from Dubai in 2014. While the crime scene is in Dundas, all of the boys involved were from other areas of Hamilton.
The murder comes amid a rise in shootings — 20 in the first four months this year. There were 25 in all of 2018, down from a high of 41 in 2017.
The increase in shootings has led to the creation of the Make Safe task force, specifically to find links between gang shootings.
Around two-thirds of shootings go unsolved in Hamilton, in part because of a lack of co-operation from victims and witnesses.
There was also a seven per cent increase in violent youth crime last year. Hamilton police say that’s mostly because of an increase in minor assaults with shootings and, especially murders, still rare. Overall, youth crime was down 14 per cent.
A couple of days before his murder, Abuobaidalla spoke with her son. His last words were to tell her he loved her with “peace and hugs.”