A Toronto mother has travelled to Calgary where her son Abdullahi Ahmed, 26, was slain in an early-morning New Year’s shooting that sent six other people to hospital.
Calgary shooting: 1 dead, 6 others injured at New Year’s party
Ahmed died after he was shot Thursday morning at a New Year’s Eve party that went well into the morning at a residence in the city’s southwest.
Ahmed left Toronto for Calgary six years ago.
News of his death spread quickly through Toronto’s Somali community.
“My reaction is one of sadness,” said Ahmed Hussein, national president of the Canadian Somali Congress.
He said Toronto’s Somali community is worried about the shooting given the history of young men from his community who get hurt or are killed in Alberta gang violence.
“In the past there were the deaths of over three dozen Canadian-Somali males in Alberta,” Hussein told CBC News. “This had continued from 2008 to 2011.”
It’s not yet clear if the New Year’s Day shooting in Calgary was gang-related.
Shooting happened early on New Year’s Day
A total of seven people were shot at about 5 a.m. MT. Police found five victims in and around a house in the 1900 block of 36th Street S.W. Two other people later showed up at local hospitals for treatment.
Those injured in the shootings are both male and female, and range in age from their early 20s to early 30s.
A female victim originally listed in critical condition has been upgraded to stable condition in a Calgary hospital.
The other victims suffered injuries that range from minor to serious.
Police don’t know if the shooting was targeted or random. At least 50 people were at the party when the shooting started.
Calgary police questioned at least 15 people and report that many are not cooperating with their investigation.
Police are reaching out to members of Calgary’s Somali community, asking them for information about the shooting.
Source: CBC News
