Gunmen get 10 years for 'botched murder' outside Vancouver restaurant

Two men who pleaded guilty to attempted murder in relation to a brazen shooting outside a restaurant in Vancouver’s Dunbar neighbourhood have been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Liban Hassan and Ahmed Ismail’s sentences were handed down on Oct. 4, nearly three years to the date since they shot and injured Mir Aali Hussain in a targeted hit.

In the decision published online Wednesday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice E. David Crossin describes the circumstances around the incident as “horrific.”

He notes the Oct. 6, 2020 shooting took place in a busy neighbourhood in the early evening, in the vicinity of businesses, homes and a daycare centre. Bullets were found in the wall of a public library, parked vehicles and a home’s fence, the court heard.

At the time of the shooting, the victim was leaving a restaurant with his wife and three-year-old child, Crossin said. He was carrying his six-month-old baby in a car seat.

Police said at the time that the children were not hurt, and none of the many bystanders were injured.

THE $150K HIT

Hassan and Ismail were contracted to travel to Vancouver and kill or kidnap Hussain, the court heard. Crossin added that the planning of Hussain’s murder was “conveniently memorialized in exquisite detail” through hundreds of text messages retrieved during the investigation.

According to those texts, Hussain was targeted due to “some kind of turf war” between rival gangs involved in the drug trade in the Lower Mainland. The judge noted that the “moving force” behind the plot is now deceased.

Hassan and Ismail were to be paid $150,000 for the task, the court heard. They arrived in Vancouver one to two weeks before the murder attempt, and secured masks, a getaway vehicle—a Jeep Cherokee—and two firearms. Ismail was armed with a 0.45 Glock Model 30 semiautomatic pistol and Hassan with a nine millimetre polymer 80 semiautomatic pistol.

The men, “having tracked the comings and goings of the victim and his family,” decided to kill Hussain as he left a restaurant near the intersection of West 29th Avenue and Dunbar, around 6 p.m.

The shooting can be heard—but not seen—in video evidence, the court was told. The shots ring out shortly after Hussain, his wife and children leave the frame. Nine shots are fired in rapid succession.

Crossin said Hussain began to flee, and he was hit twice: once in the hip, and once in the leg. Eight of the shots came from Ismail, and Hassan shot once before his gun jammed.

The gunmen then attempted to escape in the Jeep, with Ismail at the wheel and Hassan in the passenger seat. The court heard Hassan “almost immediately” fell out of the vehicle onto the street, and then tried to run away.

Ismail kept driving and hit a parked car.

“Adding to this haplessness, as it happens, two unmarked police vehicles were in the immediate location responding to an unrelated matter,” Crossin said. “Mr. Ismail and Mr. Hassan were quickly captured, leaving a trail of incriminating evidence in their wake.”

THE SENTENCING

Ismail and Hassan were arrested at the scene and have been in custody ever since. As such, their sentences received are subject to credit for time served. The Crown and defence made a joint submission, both proposing 10 years in prison.

Crossin noted that the victim, Hussain, was “eventually murdered” in a separate incident, but did not go into detail. His family did not provide a victim impact statement because they didn’t want to be exposed to any potential threat.

The judge told the court some biographical information about the two men. Ismail is currently 27 years old. He was born in Somalia and his family fled to Canada when he was six years old. Ismail “did very well in school” and began post-secondary with a basketball scholarship.

“Unfortunately, while his future looked perhaps brighter than he might have imagined, it quickly dissipated into a life of drugs and alcohol,” Crossin said.

He was convicted for an attempted robbery in 2015, and that is the extent of his criminal record.

Hassan is 38 years old, and was born in Saudi Arabia to Somalian parents who had fled the country. He also moved to North America as a child. Crossin notes that he has a “more extensive” criminal record than Ismail, but not one that would “signal graduating to agreeing to commit first-degree murder.”

“The aggravating features are many, the mitigating features few,” Crossin said. The aggravating factors include that the crime was planned and deliberate, and that it was carried out in a place where several bystanders, including small children, were in harm’s way. Both offenders also used illegal firearms, and were prohibited from owning guns in the first place.

Crossin said the men’s backgrounds as refugees who grew up in poverty “mitigate the circumstances somewhat,” as do their expressions of remorse. He added that Hassan in particular has been seeking out “extensive” counselling and courses in custody.

The judge notes that an attempted murderer is considered a “lucky murderer” and that this “botched murder” could be seen as a “fortunate turn of events” that will motivate Ismail and Hassan to “live up to the faith their family still places” in them.

“The proliferation of handguns, even in this country, continues to be bracing. Paid executioners being hired to kill a perfect stranger, who go about their business without regard to the prospect of collateral damage to blameless bystanders, is deserving of the highest rebuke,” Crossin muses.

“But for the fact Mr. Ismail could not shoot straight, I have no doubt both offenders would now be serving life sentences, and considering what to do with their lives in prison for the next, at least, 25 years.”

In the end, the judge agreed with the joint submission and sentenced both men to 10 years in prison minus time served. That means Ismail and Hassan have five years and six months left to go.

Crossin said the 10-year sentence “is clearly supported by relevant jurisprudence” and comes from “lengthy discussions between experienced and highly regarded counsel armed with all the circumstances of the matter.”

They will also be parred from processing any prohibited or restricted firearms, weapons and ammunition for life, and are banned from owning permitted firearms, crossbows, weapons, ammunition or explosives for 10 years after release.