Youngest brother remembers the night Yosif was shot as trial of two Hamilton paramedics continues
A red-haired boy, his face a mask of shock and fear, in a freeze-frame from security camera video inside a convenience store.
That was three years and five days ago.
On Monday, the boy, whose name is Ahmed, testified in a trial where a judge must decide if two paramedics failed to provide the necessaries of life in caring for his big brother, Yosif Al-Hasnawi, prior to his death from a gunshot wound.
Ahmed, now 16, described in court how Yosif was fatally wounded soon after confronting two young men outside a downtown mosque, not long after Yosif had performed a reading from the Qur'an.
He said Yosif yelled at the two men because they had been harassing an old man ambling along the sidewalk.
The guy with a black ponytail had a small silvery gun in his right hand," said Ahmed. It sounded like a loud pop. I knew he got shot."
Did you see blood?" asked assistant-Crown attorney Scott Patterson.
Yeah. On the right side of (Yosif's) stomach near his belly button."
And then Yosif sat down?"
Yes, on the sidewalk."
And you ran to the convenience store to ask the clerk to dial 911?"
I remember. Yes."
Now in its third week, a pattern has emerged in the trial where witnesses are called by the Crown to describe what they saw and heard the night of Dec. 2, 2017 - and then defence counsel representing paramedics Christopher Marchant and Steven Snively test their recall.
Some of the witnesses have given prior statements to police and testified in the homicide trial surrounding Al-Hasnawi's death.
Defence lawyers cross-reference past witness statements with current testimony and suggest inconsistencies.
Counsel Mike Delgobbo read from a statement Ahmed gave police the day after the shooting, in which he told an officer he didn't notice the colour of the gun.
It was a long night," Ahmed explained in court. And after more time I remembered more things."
Delgobbo asked Ahmed if he remembered a man in the convenience store that night, who had heard the shot fired and had told Ahmed: It will be OK, it was just a BB gun."
Ahmed said he did not recall the man in the store, or those words.
But last week in the trial, the man, George Catsoudas, testified that's what he said to the boy with bright-red short hair" who was frantically saying his brother had been shot.
Jon Wells is a Hamilton-based reporter and feature writer for The Spectator. Reach him via email: jwells@thespec.com