Murder trial hears about ‘disrespect’ that led to Limeridge Road West parking lot fight
In the lead-up to a fatal brawl in a Limeridge Road West parking lot, Sehar Khalid tried to be a peacemaker.
On one side was Hamza Chaudry, a friend she'd been hanging out with for several months. On the other were the 17-year-old friends of her two teenaged sisters.
Amid growing tension over perceived disrespect, the two sides met at the Limeridge plaza, near Garth Street, early on July 19, 2020. Chaudry's side says they were just there to talk, but were ambushed. Chaudry's younger brother Ali Mohummad was killed.
Khalid, now 23, testified Tuesday at the second-degree murder trial of two teens charged in Mohummad's death. The teens cannot be identified because they were 17 at the time.
Back in the summer of 2020, Khalid would often drive her sisters to meet up with the two teen boys. Khalid would sometimes text one of the teen boys to contact her sisters. After meeting Chaudry through Instagram, she also got to know some of his friends.
The tension between Chaudry and one of the teens began after crossing paths in a parking lot where Khalid was dropping off her sisters. One of the teen boys challenged Chaudry to a race, she said.
Then, at an early July birthday party for one of Khalid's sisters at Bayfront Park, there was another encounter. Khalid, Chaudry and two other friends sat separate from her sister's group, which included the two 17-year-olds. There was alcohol and smoking that Khalid said they didn't want to be around. The same 17-year-old came over and asked why they were sitting separate, she said.
Oh, are you kicking us out?" she remembered he said.
I said, It's no problem, we're not kicking you out.'" The older group just wanted to do their own thing, she remembered Chaudry saying.
But the teen seemed offended. Not even my dad speaks to me like that," Khalid recalled the teen saying.
As everyone was leaving, Khalid said the teens stared at them. When she walked to their car to make sure everything was OK, the 17-year-old asked if Chaudry wanted to fight. She said no and everyone went their separate ways.
On July 18, she was out with Chaudry again in Hamilton, and her sisters were with the teen boys. Around 11 p.m., the girls went home. But she soon got a call from Chaudry, who had a run-in with the teen boys at a stop light.
Khalid said she tried to tell Chaudry to leave it alone, but he messaged his friends, who came to Hamilton.
Before the meeting, Khalid met with Chaudry and his friends to try to calm the situation. She and her sisters also spoke with one of the 17-year-olds. Soon after, she started getting messages about the ambush.
I kind of got really worried," she said. She learned that Chaudry had been stabbed and that Ali Mohummad was missing. She decided to go to the scene and spoke with police.
She shared a video from Snapchat that appears to show the bloodied teens after the fight. Tell your guy we want a rematch," one of them says, adding that they were run over by a car.
Desperate for information, she messaged one of the teens asking to help find Mohummad. On my mom's life, I have no idea what happened to him," the teen texted back.
Soon after, Khalid got a call to come down to the police station and found friends crying outside. Mohummad was dead; his stabbed body had been found near the scene.
The trial continues Thursday.
Nicole O'Reilly is a crime and justice reporter at The Spectator. noreilly@thespec.com