Abductions, slayings and suspects on the run — some big crime stories from 2021
There was no shortage of crime to report in 2021. Hamilton had its share of horrible violence but much more of it was mundane.
Here are some remarkable examples from the year:
After an early morning shooting where a 40-year-old was injured near Centennial Parkway and the QEW, Hamilton police initiated a large east Hamilton manhunt. The fleeing suspect carjacked a Coca-Cola truck behind the nearby Walmart. He was eventually apprehended by police following talks with a negotiator.
A man was convicted of conspiracy to kidnap for leading a group armed with zip ties to take over the Alectra building, then Horizon Utilities, and arrest its former CEO. In May, 40-year-old Brandon Brown - who in court was called Noble Elijah El Muhammad Brown Armstrong Bey - was sentenced to only two years of probation for the bizarre" plot in 2017 that started when Bey and his accomplices walked into Hamilton police central station and presented documents saying that he planned to arrest Max Cananzi.
Hamilton police responding to a burglar alarm call at a Biggar Avenue industrial property in August, instead found an illegal cannabis oil extraction lab. Once the building was deemed safe, investigators found $45 million in cannabis, including 300 pounds of dried product and more than 2,200 litres of cannabis oil. Earlier that week local police busted an edibles factory and confiscated hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of illegal edibles.
Hamilton police named two suspects in a February homicide in Stoney Creek after Tyler Pratt, 39, was killed and his 26-year-old girlfriend injured, losing her pregnancy, in a shooting behind an Arvin Avenue business. By late March, it was determined that suspects Oliver Karafa, 28, and Yun (Lucy) Lu Li, 25, fled to Eastern Europe. For months the duo were on the run, but in mid-June they were caught and arrested by police in Hungary. Li returned to Canada immediately, but Karafa is continuing to fight his extradition with an appeal after a December decision in Budapest court ordered him sent back to Canada to face charges.
An adult son died and his father was kidnapped after armed men forced their way into a family home on Glancaster Road in mid-September, looking for money. Hasnain Ali, 21, was shot and killed trying to save his father, Faqir, who was dragged away, beaten and then dumped off Beach Boulevard.
A Hamilton teen was charged in November in a multi-million-dollar cryptocurrency theft. Authorities in the U.S. allege the 17-year-old played a part in stealing $46 million from a California-based entrepreneur considered a Bitcoin pioneer. The investigation of the theft, first reported to authorities in 2020, led FBI and United States Secret Service electronic crimes task force to Hamilton.
Jeremy Kemeny is a Hamilton-based web editor at The Spectator. Reach him via email: jkemeny@thespec.com