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Everything we know about the man charged in Edmonton's truck attack from the woman who knows him best

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“You can ask (her) anything about me, and she will tell you.”

Those handful of words are the first Abdulahi Hasan Sharif has spoken to media since Sept. 30, 2017 — the day a city police constable was run down by a car and stabbed outside an Edmonton Eskimos game and four pedestrians were later struck by a swerving U-Haul truck pursued by police.

When a TV cameraman’s lens caught the image of an Islamic State-group flag inside the car that night, the events became international news.

Sharif, 31, is charged with five counts of attempted murder in addition to charges for fleeing police and possessing a knife. While police initially said they were investigating the events as “acts of terrorism,” no terrorism charges have been laid.

Sharif’s Sept. 19 call from the Calgary Remand Centre to a Postmedia reporter was short — about two minutes — and focused on confirming his relationship with a woman who has been his romantic partner since 2016.

Since the attack, only snippets of information about Sharif have come to light, through police, the courts and a small number friends, former coworkers and advocates.

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Abdulahi Hasan Sharif
Abdulahi Hasan Sharif Photo by Supplied /Postmedia

Sharif’s 31-year-old partner, who met him in early 2016 and lived with him for about one year, granted two interviews to Postmedia this month on the condition her name not be used because she is concerned for her safety.

Through her, a clearer picture of Sharif has emerged, one that includes trauma from his early life in Somalia and how he eventually ended up living in Canada. Sharif described to her two cases when he was held captive by the East African Islamist group al-Shabab. She said he has a history of violent outbursts which he has difficultly controlling, though she added he never intentionally hurt her. And as a preteen, he was hospitalized and medicated for a mental disorder.

Doctors who assessed Sharif at Alberta Hospital in Edmonton following his arrest found him fit to stand trial.

Samantha Labahn, Sharif’s lawyer, advised the woman against speaking about some details of the case — specifically the flag and a previous RCMP investigation into alleged “extremist” views earlier espoused by Sharif.

In the weeks and months leading up to Sept. 30, Sharif’s partner said he was increasingly unwell. Some nights, he would wake up screaming. Somebody was after him, trying to kill him.

Other nights, while lying awake in bed, he would convince himself there was a snake in the room. He would see things, hear things that weren’t there.

“Sometimes he would tell me, ‘Tonight I’m not going to sleep in the bedroom, give me a mattress, I want to sleep in the living room,'” said Sharif’s partner.

“When I ask him why, what’s going on? He would be like, ‘So I can jump from the balcony if something happens.'”

She told him he would seriously hurt himself if he jumped; the apartment where they lived was on the third floor.

“‘I will break my bones, but (at least) I won’t be dead,'” he replied.

Terror on Edmonton streets

Sept. 30, 2017, was a crisp autumn evening in Edmonton. Around 30,000 people made their way to Commonwealth Stadium just north of downtown for the Saturday night matchup pitting the Edmonton Eskimos against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Down the road from the stadium, near 107A Avenue and 92 Street, Edmonton police Const. Mike Chernyk staffed a game-day traffic blockade.

Then, around 8:15 p.m. as the game was underway, a white Chevrolet Malibu careened through barricades, slamming into Chernyk who was sent flying through the air, tumbling to the pavement about five metres away. Within 20 seconds, as a handful of onlookers ran over to help the injured officer, the driver of the car scrambled out from behind the wheel and attacked Chernyk with a knife as bystanders fled. The two men wrestled on the ground in a 30-second life-and-death struggle before the attacker fled north on 92 Street, with Chernyk bolting up.

Police immediately launched a manhunt. Hours after the attack on Chernyk, police at a CheckStop near Wayne Gretzky Drive and 112 Avenue pulled over a man driving a rented U-Haul truck. When an officer recognized the name on his driver’s licence, the man sped away in the truck, trailed by at least a dozen police vehicles.

The chase roared into downtown Edmonton, where police said the swerving U-Haul deliberately hit four pedestrians — Kim O’Hara, Jordan Stewardson, Paul Biegel and Jack Zubick — in its race along Jasper Avenue. Within minutes, police rammed the speeding truck with a cruiser, flipping it onto its side near 100 Avenue and 106 Street. Officers smashed the front window, deployed a Taser, detonated a stun grenade and pulled the driver through the shattered windshield.

Amazingly, no one was killed. No one fired a shot.

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Edmonton police rammed a speeding truck with a cruiser to end a truck attack on the night of Sept. 30, 2017, flipping it onto its side at 100 Avenue and 106 Street.
Edmonton police rammed a speeding truck with a cruiser to end a truck attack on the night of Sept. 30, 2017, flipping it onto its side at 100 Avenue and 106 Street. Photo by Ian Kucerak /Postmedia
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Sharif’s start

According to Sharif’s charge document, he was born Jan. 1, 1987. His partner, who is herself from Somalia, said he was born in Mogadishu. She said Sharif himself is unsure of his exact birthday. He speaks some English, but relies on a Somali language interpreter in court.

Somalia’s civil war began in 1991 with the overthrow of the country’s longtime dictator. It was soon deemed a failed state. What Sharif told his partner of his early life was grim, and her understanding of his timeline is by her own admission incomplete.

She said Sharif is one of six siblings — four brothers and two sisters — who are now split between Kenya and Somalia. Sharif’s mother is now in Nairobi, Kenya, while his father is still in Mogadishu.

Sharif had learning difficulties in school, and would often escape to the movie theatre instead of going to class. His family would “punish him all the time,” she said, sometimes with beatings.

Sharif began to show signs of mental illness as a youth, his partner said. He was treated between 1998 and 2001, both in hospital and under supervision at home, she said. He later told her he was diagnosed with what he called “manic depression,” in addition to other issues. Sharif’s mother “could just tell me that he was in hospital, he used to take medication,” the partner said.

Sharif’s mental state was the focus of months of legal proceedings. His former lawyer, Karanpal Aujla, said he had “significant” concerns about his client’s mental health. He requested doctors assess Sharif’s fitness to stand trial as well as whether he could be found “not criminally responsible” for his alleged actions on account of a mental disorder.

Doctors at Alberta Hospital eventually determined Sharif is fit to stand trial, and that he does not meet the threshold to be deemed not criminally responsible.

In March, Aujla told reporters he was “definitely surprised” with the outcome of the latter assessment.

“In my opinion, it found substantial mental health issues; however, the test required for (not criminally responsible) is quite, quite high,” he said. Labahn, his current lawyer, said she plans to seek a second opinion.

Postmedia earlier this month requested access to the court-ordered assessments of Sharif’s mental health, but as is typical with such records, they are sealed by order of a provincial court judge.

Flight from al-Shabab

When Sharif was a teenager, his partner said he was twice taken hostage by al-Shabab, a jihadist group that emerged in 2006.

He described being held with a friend by militants at a facility north of Mogadishu for about 50 days in either 2005 or 2006 — beaten, locked up and forced to labour under threat of death.

He escaped when a militant stopped to get gas while driving him and a fellow prisoner. The two ran off, their hands bound, under a hail of gunfire. Sharif told his partner he was eventually rescued by the Ethiopian army — who at first shot at him believing he was carrying explosives. The army held him for about two weeks before releasing him.

Al-Shabab later killed some of Sharif’s friends and an uncle, which prompted him to flee the country. Sharif would tell his partner how much he hates the group. She would sometimes joke with him about how they would kill him if they knew things he did in Edmonton — like giving blood or living with non-Muslim friends.

“And he would be like, ‘Thanks God I’m not in Somalia,'” she said.

Sharif left the country around 2008. He travelled to Kenya, then Tanzania, Zambia, Namibia and Angola. He had some money from family, who wanted to help him get to a safe country.

He eventually met a group that was travelling to Brazil, his partner said.

Mahamad Accord, a Somali human rights advocate who was one of the first people to speak to Sharif after his arrest, said in an interview earlier this year that they talked about Sharif’s path to Canada during a visit at the Edmonton Remand Centre.

Accord was able to speak to Sharif through a video link at the Elizabeth Fry Society, which provides services to people in the court system. He ended contact after Sharif was assigned a lawyer. They did not talk about specifics of the case because their conversations would not have been privileged.

Brazil is a common starting point for African refugees in the Americas, said Accord, because it’s easier to get visas there.

Sharif’s partner said he stayed in Brazil long enough to find work with a company that slaughters chickens. At some point, he made his way to Mexico. She did not know the exact details of how he got there, but he said he used traffickers to help him move from country to country.

On July 12, 2011, Sharif arrived on foot at the San Ysidro port of entry — a sprawling border crossing between Tijuana, Mexico, and California. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, he had no documents and no legal status to enter the United States, so he was taken into custody and turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) three days later. According to ICE, he had no known criminal history.

The San Ysidro port of entry from Tijuana, Mexico, to San Diego is one of the busiest in the United States. This is where Abuduhli Sharif entered the U.S. in July 2011.
The San Ysidro port of entry from Tijuana, Mexico, to San Diego is one of the busiest in the United States. This is where Abuduhli Sharif entered the U.S. in July 2011. Photo by Gregory Bull /AP
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Sharif was held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego while he awaited an immigration judge’s decision on his future. He later told his partner that it was a terrifying ordeal. Sharif “frightens from prison or anywhere close to police officers” because of his time in Somalia, she told Postmedia, and being detained made him feel “sick.”

On Sept. 22, 2011, a U.S. immigration judge ordered Sharif deported to Somalia, and Sharif waived his right to appeal that decision, according to ICE.

Postmedia requested a copy of the immigration judge’s decision under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and received a one-page, redacted summary of Judge Zsa Zsa Depaolo’s order. It did not include any reasons why Sharif was ordered deported, or information on whether he made an asylum claim. The Safe Third-Country Agreement between the U.S. and Canada typically requires a refugee claimant to make their claim in the country in which they first arrived, though there are exceptions.

Instead of being deported immediately, Sharif was released on an order of supervision due to the “lack of likelihood of his removal in the reasonably foreseeable future,” ICE said in a statement. The U.S. was not deporting people to Somalia at the time because the African nation had no recognized government, and a U.S. court decision prevents the government from indefinitely holding people in immigration detention.

Under the order, Sharif was to report to ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations in San Diego on Jan. 24, 2012. He never showed, and ICE could not locate him. An ICE spokesperson would not confirm whether Sharif requested permission to travel within the U.S. while under supervision.

According to his partner, Sharif had by that point travelled to Buffalo, N.Y., to try his luck in Canada, but she did not know much about his time there.

Abdala Mohamed, who at the time worked with refugees in Buffalo, said he was contacted by the FBI a few days after Sharif’s arrest. He wasn’t sure if Sharif had given him as a contact, or how the FBI might have gotten his name.

Mohamed said he was working with refugees at the time, and helped so many people he doesn’t remember many of them. He would direct people to services in the community — including Vive La Casa, a shelter for people awaiting refugee claim appointments with Canadian immigration officers.

A spokesperson for Vive La Casa said it was not able to provide information about whether Sharif stayed there.

“They asked me a bunch of questions and I answered,” Mohamed said of his interview with the FBI at a truck stop near Buffalo. “The bottom line is I don’t know him.”

Maureen Dempsey, a spokeswoman with the FBI’s Buffalo office, said she could not comment on whether Mohamed was interviewed.

No red flags

A Canada Border Services Agency spokesperson said Sharif crossed into Canada in 2012 and was found to be a refugee later that year.

The agency would not confirm exactly when and where Sharif entered the country. But Postmedia has learned Sharif crossed into Canada on Jan. 9, 2012, at the Fort Erie, Ont., port of entry.

After Sharif’s arrest, federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said he was a convention refugee — a person who is not able to return to their home country because of a “well-founded fear of persecution.” There was no information about him that would have raised any red flags, Goodale said.

To enter Canada, Abdulahi Sharif arrived from Buffalo, N.Y., via the Fort Erie, Ont., border crossing on Jan. 9, 2012, Postmedia has learned.
To enter Canada, Abdulahi Sharif arrived from Buffalo, N.Y., via the Fort Erie, Ont., border crossing on Jan. 9, 2012, Postmedia has learned. Photo by Aaron Lynett /Postmedia
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Sharif was in Ontario for about a year before travelling to Edmonton, his partner said, because there was high demand here for unskilled labour. A spokesperson for Edmonton’s Catholic Social Services said Sharif went to its office in December 2014 for help applying for a work permit, which his partner said he needed in addition to his refugee status.

He was scheduled for a followup meeting three days later, but never showed.

Once in Edmonton, Sharif mostly worked as a labourer. His first job was separating garbage from recycling at a local recycling plant. He then found work as a general construction labourer. Eventually, he started work with a subcontractor, with whom he became friends. His boss allowed him to live in the basement of a house that he owned near 111 Avenue and 116 Street. Sharif’s most recent work was installing insulation, which took him to cities across Alberta.

The woman met Sharif in 2016 while she was working as a cleaner at a building on St. Albert Trail with a friend of his. When they finished up work at 9:30 p.m., the friend would call Sharif for a ride because they all lived in the Queen Mary Park area.

Sharif and the woman did not get along at first.

“When I first met him, I actually didn’t like him,” his partner recalled. “He felt like someone who doesn’t talk, (a) very awkward kind of person.” The friend, though, insisted Sharif was one of the nicest people he knew.

“I felt the opposite for like three months,” she said. “I sometimes feel like I prefer to take the bus instead of getting his ride.”

After a few months, they warmed to each other. They began hanging out in a group, sometimes at Tim Hortons, and later started dating.

Eventually, Sharif moved from the basement to an apartment in Edmonton’s Prince Rupert neighbourhood, where police descended after his arrest. He would have friends over to play video games, but he was actually spending most of his time at his partner’s third-floor apartment near Northgate Centre.

“We did not tell any of our friends about us,” she said. “They knew we are dating but they didn’t know we live together. He had the other place so if anybody comes by, they meet him there.”

She said Sharif is Muslim, but was never particularly religious. During Ramadan, he would claim to be fasting — a ruse she immediately saw through. She liked to go to the mosque on Fridays, but he usually resisted.

“He would be like, ‘Why would I have to go and sit between all these people. If I want to pray I want to pray at home,'” she said. “And he would not pray at home.”

‘Espousing extremist ideologies’

Sharif first came to the attention of Canadian law enforcement in 2015. The day after Sharif’s arrest, Alberta RCMP assistant commissioner Marlin Degrand said he had been investigated for “espousing extremist ideologies” in 2015, but that there was not enough evidence to continue the investigation. Degrand did not go into details about what Sharif is alleged to have done.

The day after the attack, however, an unnamed former co-worker of Sharif’s told the CBC that he had expressed support for violent extremists years before. The person claimed that while the two worked together on a construction site in the summer of 2015, Sharif held “genocidal beliefs” and had “major issues with polytheists.” He also alleged Sharif talked about hating Shia Muslims and expressed support for the so-called Islamic State.

The source said they reported Sharif to Edmonton police, who sent the case to the RCMP. Investigators with the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) later interviewed Sharif at K Division headquarters in Edmonton.

Accord, the Somali human rights advocate, said he was frustrated because the RCMP did not seem to connect Sharif with mental health services or community groups after its investigation.

“They deemed that he was not a threat to society,” he said. “They still could have (reached) out to some people that could help.”

He said Sharif wasn’t well known among Edmonton’s wider Somali community, around whom he was especially careful to hide his mental health issues.

“I asked him why he didn’t seek help … he said if his mental condition leaked out he may not be employable.”

Accord was also frustrated by what he sees as a rush to judgment by police, politicians and media to refer to the events as terrorism.

“He’s sick, and he should be treated as a sick person,” Accord said. “However angry (we are) with his actions, his mental capacity wasn’t (in the) right place.”

The scene near Commonwealth Stadium where Const. Mike Chernyk was injured after being rammed by a vehicle and attacked on Sept. 30, 2017.
The scene near Commonwealth Stadium where Const. Mike Chernyk was injured after being rammed by a vehicle and attacked on Sept. 30, 2017. Photo by Postmedia
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‘I used to drive that car’

Sharif’s partner said their relationship began to deteriorate in the summer of 2017. He had recently lost a job, and was frustrated with travel paperwork issues. His mother was ill and he wanted to travel to Kenya and see her, but couldn’t because his travel document was about to expire. His behaviour became erratic — especially at night. Oftentimes, the next morning he wouldn’t remember what had happened.

“He used to have so many panic attacks all the time, he used to have less sleep,” she said. “I actually felt he was out of control. I told him he really needs to go and see a doctor, because he would scare me.”

Sharif never did go to a doctor. She last saw him in the middle of September at a restaurant in Edmonton, where she met him to collect a tablet computer. By that point, she had already taken his key to her apartment.

She was working as a housekeeper at a work camp near Fort McMurray when she heard what happened in Edmonton. A co-worker told her about it during a lunch break the following day.

“He’s like, ‘There was a terrorist attack, there’s this terrorist guy who hit a police officer and all that,'” she said. She hates hearing about terrorists, she said, because “they made our life miserable back home.” She asked if anyone was killed and tried to put it out of her mind.

“And he said, ‘No’ and I’m like, ‘Thank God,'” she said.

But she started to grow uneasy. At some point, someone showed her a YouTube video of the scene and she saw the white Malibu.

“I used to drive that car, so I could know the car without even seeing the plate number,” she said. “So what I started doing was calling (Sharif’s) number. It was just ringing and no answer. I called, I did everything, I even called his friends, they didn’t know anything about it.”

A few days later, she managed to visit with him via video link. She said he was confused, and didn’t seem to know what had happened.

“When I first saw his face he was so scared,” she said. He had convinced himself she would stay away from him after what had happened. But she did her best to calm him down.

“I was trying to make everything seem like he did nothing,” she said. “So I’m like ‘Everything’s going to be OK, you haven’t done anything, everything’s going to be fine.’ That’s all I could tell him.”

Sharif’s trial is scheduled for Oct. 15 to Dec. 6, 2019, in Edmonton.

— With files from Paige Parsons

jwakefield@postmedia.com

twitter.com/jonnywakefield

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