SASKATOON – Indigenous man 30-year-old Logan Nayneecassum was murdered in a Saskatoon bar trying to save his friend, Saskatoon Court of King’s Bench heard Friday.
In December 2023, a jury found Somalia national and U. S. permanent resident Afrah Ahmed Abdi, now 34, guilty of second-degree murder in Nayneecassum's death in August 2020 at Aria Food and Spirits in Saskatoon’s Rosewood neighbourhood.
“Logan was just trying to get [Abdi] away from his friend,” Prosecutor Michael Pilon told the court.
Arguments over Abdi's parole eligibility were heard Friday. The Crown is seeking 15 years, whereas defence said 10 years was fitting. A second-degree murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 10 years. Justice Mona Dovell reserved her decision until March 4.
Pilon told the court that Abdi started the altercation with Nayneecassum’s friend and Nayneecassum stepped in to help. He tried separating them by giving Abdi a bear hug. Two other people jumped in and Adbi pointed the handgun.
Nayneecassum raised his arms in the air and wasn’t a threat but Abdi shot him, said Pilon.
After Abdi shot Nayneecassum, he didn’t try to assist him and left him “in pool of his own blood to die.”
Pilon said there are no mitigating factors. Abdi didn’t enter a guilty plea, he didn’t cooperate with the authorities, there are no Gladue factors, and he didn’t express remorse.
Denunciation and deterrence are crucial, Pilon told the court, describing Nayneecassum’s murder as callous and senseless.
“We don’t live in Toronto or Vancouver,” where people bring loaded handguns into bars, he added.
Pilon told the court that after Abdi is released on parole, Canada will likely deport him to the U. S.
Nayneecassum’s murder has had a “significant profound impact on many people,” said Pilon.
Five of Nayneecassum’s family members were in the gallery for the sentencing hearing. They submitted one combined victim impact statement to the court and asked that it not be read out loud.
Abdi hasn’t held any known employment when he travels in Canada, said Pilon.
Abdi has a criminal record, mostly in Alberta, and was arrested one month after first entering Canada in March 2009. His charges were drug-related and breach of conditions offences, court heard.
At the time of Nayneecassum’s murder in August 2020, he had bench warrants for his arrest out of Grande Prairie, Alta., for failing to comply with release conditions.
After Nayneecassum's murder, Abdi fled to the U.S. from Canada in January 2021 and was arrested in Montana for illegally entering the U. S. He was extradited to Saskatchewan in July 2021. To speed up his extradition, the drug-related and breach charges were stayed by the Crown in Alberta and the U. S. withdrew the illegal entry charge.
Pilon argued that having a loaded handgun in a crowded Saskatoon bar, which led to Nayneecassum’s murder, was an aggravating factor. Abdi didn’t have a license for a restricted handgun and was under a firearm’s ban at the time.
Defence counsel Leo Adler told the court that Abdi empathizes with the victim’s family and understands what it’s like to lose someone to murder, adding that Abdi’s cousin and best friend were shot to death.
Adler said that Nayneecassum’s murder was fuelled by drugs, alcohol, pride, and anger. Abdi was high on cocaine and alcohol at the time of the shooting in the bar, which affected his perception and thinking process.
Abdi was born in May 1988 in Mogadishu, Somalia, and is the oldest of five children. He was the only one born in Somalia. His siblings were born in Toronto and he was one years old when his family came to North America. His parents lived in Toronto and Virginia. Abdi graduated high school in Virginia.
Adler said Abdi was self-employed, his fiancé lives in Ontario and he is a father-figure to her son.
He said that after Abdi was arrested in the U. S. he had agreed to be extradited to Canada.
Adler said the night of Nayneecassum's murder, Abdi arrived at the bar just before closing time and saw “Natives with two guns.” Abdi was a regular at that bar and had never caused issues in the past or was seen there with weapons.
He said that Abdi didn’t bring a loaded handgun into the bar and had taken it away from someone else. He argued that it wasn’t proven at trial that Abdi brought a loaded handgun into the bar and he was never charged with illegal possession of a loaded firearm.
Adler said after Nayneecassum was shot in the leg, no one – not even Nayneecassum’s friends – called 911 or “went to his aid” or did anything to help him.
“Everyone fled even though they faced no legal jeopardy.”
Nayneecassum's murder has destroyed the lives of two people, said Adler.
“That night at the bar, two lives were lost,” said Adler, adding that “in Canada we don’t make it hopeless, we don’t lock people up forever.
“There’s every good reason to make it a 10-year period.”
Abdi fled to U. S. with Brothers Keepers gang member
After Nayneecassum's murder, Abdi had fled Canada to the United States with a fellow Somalia national and high-ranking Brothers Keepers gang member.
In August 2020, Saskatoon Police Service issued a Canada-wide warrant for Abdi’s arrest on a second-degree murder charge in Nayneecassum’s murder. Abdi was known in Canada at the time as Afrah Ali.
Abdi, along with Somalia national and Canadian permanent resident Naseem Ali Mohammed, and Jamaican national Christopher White, had entered the U. S. illegally from Canada on Jan. 23, 2021, and were arrested in Montana following a high-speed 122-kilometre car chase with speeds reaching up to 209 km/hr. The U. S. Department of Justice identified Abdi, of Virginia, as Afrah Ali through fingerprints, according to U. S. court documents.
When the three were arrested, Mohammed gave the name Bati Ahmed and was released hours after his arrest following a criminal check that didn’t show that he was wanted. U. S. authorities, however, later learned about his ties to Brothers Keepers gang in Canada and that he was wanted in British Columbia and Ontario.
A month later, U. S. Border Patrol Agents filed an affidavit saying that Mohamed was a "high-ranking member of the Brothers Keepers gang" and a "most wanted" fugitive in Surrey, B.C., who had been "on the run" since February of 2020, CBC Vancouver had reported. The affidavit went on to say that Mohammed was the RCMP's "primary suspect in multiple gang-related homicides" in two provinces.
The Brothers Keepers were in a gang war with rivals Red Scorpion-Kang group and the United Nations, according to CBC Vancouver.
“The Brothers Keepers were hired by the Edmonton Hells Angels to bring violence to Surrey after they killed (a woman) and kicked Redd Alert to the curb,” claims Gangsters Out blog that specializes in, and writes about, organized crime, adding that they also hired the Driftwood Crips to keep the Brothers Keepers in line.
In April 2022, Mohammed was sentenced to 41 months in jail after pleading guilty to first-degree robbery, according to the U. S. District Attorney’s Office for the District of Montana in a media release.
White, who had fled Canada with Abdi and Mohammed, and Rastesfaye Neil, the driver who helped the three men, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in August 2021 to two years in prison, according to a media release by the U. S. District Attorney’s Office for the District of Montana.
White, a Jamaican national, was removed from the United States in March 2020 through New York and sent back to Canada, said the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Montana in a media release.
Neil, who took police on the high-speed chase trying to help Abdi, White, and Mohammed escape, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in August 2021 to two years in prison, said the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Montana in a media release.
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