Witness at murder trial describes getting hit in head with rock, seeing friend stabbed during parking lot ambush

Moments after getting out of his black BMW in a Limeridge Road West parking lot early on July 19, 2020, Mohammad Alrubaye says he was hit in the head with a rock.

Then he saw one of his friends stabbed in the stomach with a knife, the 20-year-old testified through an Arabic interpreter in a Hamilton courtroom Friday.

Alrubaye said he picked up his friend and put him in the back seat of his car and, with another friend in the passenger seat, drove off to get help.

He said say goodbye to my mother," Alrubaye recalls his injured friend saying. I told him be strong you will get through it."

They soon spotted an ambulance and flagged it down to get help. That friend survived, but another - Ali Mohummad - did not. The 19-year-old was fatally stabbed during the fight in the parking lot of 310 Limeridge Rd. W. At first no one could find Mohummad. His body was discovered hours later near the scene by police.

Alrubaye testified Friday at the trial of two teens charged with second-degree murder. They were 17 at the time of Mohummad's death and cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

They are not alleged to have caused the fatal wounds, but rather are accused of organizing the ambush that ended with the fatal stabbing of Mohummad.

Another teen - also charged with second-degree murder - will be tried separately.

This trial has already heard that Mohummad's older brother Hamza Chaudry had gotten into an argument with two teens from Hamilton. He called his friends to come with him to meet that night to sort out the problem.

Instead, Chaudry and his friends say they were ambushed by a group of 20 to 30 people, many who carried weapons. A cellphone video of the melee went viral on Twitter, showing Mohummad being chased through the parking lot and two teens being struck by a white BMW.

According to an agreed statement of facts, both the prosecution and defence agree it is the murder victim seen running in the video. It's also agreed that the two teens on trial were there that night, although what role they played is contested.

On cross examination, Alrubaye was pressed about changes between his statements to police and what he said in court, including about why he went to Hamilton.

Alrubaye testified that he was casual friends with Chaudry at the time of the incident. He had been out in Niagara Falls that night before he got calls and messages from Chaudry to come to Hamilton.

Alrubaye said he and a friend headed to Hamilton without knowing why they were going. His black BMW was the last car that pulled into the Limeridge Road West parking lot before the chaos erupted.

In hospital, after flagging down the ambulance, Alrubaye said he got stitches in his head. He got a call and was told that Mohummad was missing, so he drove back to the scene at Limeridge where friends were gathered. At that point no one knew where Mohummad was. He watched police dogs searching the scene.

The friends were taken back to the police station to give video statements and it was then that they learned of Mohummad's death.

The trial continues Monday.

Nicole O'Reilly is a crime and justice reporter at The Spectator. noreilly@thespec.com