No charges against Hamilton cop in response to shooting death of Yosif Al-Hasnawi
Ontario's Special Investigations Unit says there are no grounds to lay criminal charges against a police officer who was first on scene in the shooting death of Hamilton teen Yosif Al-Hasnawi.
The SIU released a decision Thursday saying it looked into allegations that police laughed and joked, and told Al-Hasnawi he was overreacting to his gunshot wound. Witness accounts are conflicted, says the report from director Tony Loparco. And there's "no reasonable grounds" to charge the officer with criminal negligence causing death.
Al-Hasnawi, 19, was shot on Dec. 2, 2017. The Brock University medical sciences student was attending a religious ceremony at the Al-Mostafa Islamic Centre. He stepped outside with his brother and saw an older man being accosted, and intervened. One of the people accosting the older man shot Al-Hasnawi, police say.
Paramedics responded, and some witnesses said first responders lacked urgency in treating the teen. Al-Hasnawi died in hospital an hour later. Police have charged two Hamilton paramedics – Steve Snively, 53, of Hamilton, and Chris Marchant, 29, of Whitby – with failing to provide the necessaries of life.
Dale Burningsky King has been charged with second-degree murder. James Matheson, 21, is out on probation after pleading guilty last year to obstruction of justice.
The SIU report says when two officers were called to the scene at Sanford and Main Street East at 8:56 p.m., the 911 call taker said Al-Hasnawi had likely been shot by a BB gun.
The dispatch call said there were "possible gun shots," and there was a male with "minor injuries, superficial to abdomen." The police officers arrived at 8:57 to find Al-Hasnawi writhing on the sidewalk with a wound to his abdomen.
"Even when the cops came, they looked and figured it was a BB gun," said one of 49 civilian witnesses statements obtained by the SIU. "We couldn't figure out why the kid was acting like he was on his death bed." Other witnesses described the shot as sounding like a bang, or "a fire cracker."
When ambulance were called at 8:59 p.m., the dispatcher repeated Al-Hasnawi had "soft tissue trauma due to a pellet gun injury." Paramedics arrived just after 9 p.m., and Al-Hasnawi arrived at St. Joseph's hospital at 9:39 p.m. He went into cardiac arrest a minute later, and was pronounced dead at 9:59 p.m.
A post-mortem report concluded Al-Hasnawi died of "a penetrating gunshot wound of the abdomen complicated by massive blood loss."
The SIU report outlines various witness accounts, some saying there was laughter and joking after the paramedics arrived. One account said the police and paramedics were "standing by joking around with each other," while another said there were "cops just standing there talking and giggling."
But the report says accounts are conflicted about that. And if police were rude and insensitive, that's "far from commendable" but also not a crime unless it interfered with the care Al-Hasnawi received.
Al-Hasnawi's father and brothers are suing Hamilton Police Service, the paramedic service and St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton.
