After fatal shooting, councillor calls for Carlington restaurant's eviction

The councillor who represents the neighbourhood where a man was shot to death Sunday said the community is fed up with the crime happening at a Carlington restaurant and wants it gone.

Riley Brockington told CBC News he met Monday morning with the landlord for The Suya Spot — a restaurant in a strip mall near where 26-year-old Abdi Jama was shot — and asked about having the restaurateurs evicted.

"I made it very clear to the landlord that I would like to see this tenant removed, that if he can terminate his lease, that is what the community is looking forward [to]," said Brockington.

"We no longer have the welcome mat open and ready for this tenant. There have been too many problems in the community, and it's time for them to go, plain and simple."

The landlord told Brockington he would meet with the tenant this week to have a frank discussion, Brockington said.

Known gang member

Around 6 a.m. Sunday, emergency crews responded to reports of multiple shots fired behind the strip mall at Shillington Avenue and Merivale Road in the city's Carlington neighbourhood.

Minutes later police were called to the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre, where a man was suffering from gunshot wounds.

Police said he was transferred to The Ottawa Hospital's Civic campus one kilometre away — there is no emergency department at the Royal — where he later died.

The death of Jama, a known gang member, was Ottawa's 13th homicide of 2016, and came one day after 40-year-old Jacob Thompson was shot and killed on Elmira Drive in the city's west end.

It's also the second homicide in Carlington this year: in May, 56-year-old Lonnie Leafloor was found dead in a community housing building on Lepage Avenue, only a few blocks away from the site of Sunday's killing.

Brockington said The Suya Spot — a Nigerian-style barbecue joint with one location in Ottawa and two more in Toronto — has been the scene of everything from theft and vandalism to violence and public sex since it arrived in the neighbourhood in 2013.

The restaurant has also been charged with selling liquor without a license and committing fire code violations, he said.

According to its voicemail, The Suya Spot is closed on Mondays. No one from the restaurant has responded to the CBC's request for comments.

Brockington said his "understanding" was that the people involved in Sunday's shooting may have been inside the restaurant, and that the victim was shot when he came outside.

"A lot of the incidents in the neighbourhood happen outside the establishment and spill into the streets, which is a greater concern," said Brockington. "Because you don't want bystanders or homeowners or others in the area ... to be hurt by those activities."

The restaurant's current lease is for five years, Brockington added.

'How many chances do you get?'

Calls to police reporting incidents at the restaurant have increased over the past few years, and have included thefts, assaults, shootings and a stabbing earlier this year, said acting Staff Sgt. Anthony Skinner of the Ottawa Police Service.

Cameron Ketchum, president of the Carlington Community Association, agreed with Brockington that it's time for the restaurant to move on.

Ketchum said the association met with both the restaurant owners and their landlords about a year and a half ago. While the owners indicated at that meeting that they wanted to be "more connected" with the neighbourhood, Ketchum said nothing ever materialized.

"How many chances do you get, really? Yeah, I think it's probably time. It's certainly, from a community safety perspective, the most appropriate course of action," Ketchum said.

View a map of the city's homicides here.