Police ask for help finding 2021 rooming-house shooting suspect

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/02/2024 (617 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg police are asking for the public’s help to find a man accused of two counts of attempted murder in a 2021 Furby Street rooming house shooting that may have been tied to a street-gang dispute.

Major crimes detectives obtained a warrant for Yusuf Abdulquadir Ali, 28, last March for his alleged role in the shooting at the rooming house on the 100 block of Furby Street at about 8 p.m. on Nov. 25, 2021 that left two men clinging to life.

Patrol officers who were called to the Furby Street house over reports of gunshots found the men, 35 and 29, suffering from bullet wounds.

The victims were rushed to hospital in critical condition, but have since recovered, said police.

“There’s a belief that this may stem from gang affiliation, a gang-involved incident,” said Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Claude Chancy, who added he did not know which gangs may have been involved.

Ali, who police described as gang-affiliated with ties to Winnipeg’s illicit drug trade, is also wanted for multiple gun charges related to the shooting, including discharging a firearm with intent, on top of 11 other pending firearms and weapons charges from 2019 that have still not been heard in court.

On Tuesday, Chancy said investigators have exhausted their efforts trying to locate Ali, who may still be in the city or could have fled to another jurisdiction.

“It’s hard to say, at this point — they just don’t know where he is, so they’re pleading for public assistance,” said Chancy.

“Investigators have been and are diligently working on this case.”

Ali’s record includes two convictions for drug trafficking in 2016 and 2018.

He pleaded guilty in October 2016 to the first charge and was sentenced to 15 months of jail, a year of supervised probation and a 10-year court order banning him from owning weapons, court records show.

In October 2017, WPS guns and gangs investigators got a drug warrant for an apartment suite on Waverley Street.

When police busted in the door one evening that month, they found Ali playing video games in the apartment’s living room while crack cocaine was cooking on an element of the stove, court heard at the sentencing hearing for him and his co-accused in October 2018.

Federal Crown prosecutor Raegan Rankin told court police seized a total of about 31/2kilograms of crack and powder cocaine, among other items.

Ali, who was held without bail for more than a year, was sentenced to time served and another period of supervised probation along with another weapons prohibition.

In 2019, Ali failed to comply with the curfew condition of a court order, to which he pleaded guilty in February 2020.

Chancy said Ali, who’s six-foot-three and 235 pounds with a medium build, should not be approached.

Police have asked anyone with information on Ali’s whereabouts to contact detectives at 204-986-6219, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 204-786-8477 or call 911.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca