Judge asks, but killer won’t explain daylight drug-linked shooting near school

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/03/2024 (577 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Moments before being sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 15 years, Dahir Abdi refused a judge’s plea to explain what drove him to kill a rival drug dealer in broad daylight, just steps away from a private girls’ school.

“I’m left wondering, what was going through your mind to pull out a gun at 3:45 in the afternoon in a residential neighbourhood and start shooting?” King’s Bench Justice Chris Martin asked Abdi at a sentencing hearing Monday.

“I have nothing to say to that,” said Abdi, who previously pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the June 14, 2021 shooting of 29-year-old Kyle Braithwaite.

Martin pressed on, calling gun crime a “scourge” in the city and saying Abdi “owe(d) it to the community” to explain why he shot Braithwaite, and how he obtained the murder weapon.

Abdi, 22, just shook his head.

The minimum sentence for second-degree murder is life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years. Crown and defence lawyers jointly recommended Abdi’s period of parole ineligibility be increased to 15 years.

Co-accused Theodoros Kyriakakos, 23, previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced last October to 12 years in prison.

Braithwaite was shot twice in the chest and back following a beef over drug territory near Balmoral and Young streets, a short walk from Balmoral Hall private girls’ school

According to an agreed statement of facts read out in court, Braithwaite, a member of the B-Side street gang, and a number of males confronted Abdi and Kyriakakos behind the nearby Granite Curling Club at about 3:40 p.m., accusing them of dealing drugs in B-Side territory.

The two parties separated, with Kyriakakos and Abdi, who court heard were not affiliated with any gang, driving away in their rented Jeep.

Minutes later, Kyriakakos and Abdi parked outside an apartment building at Balmoral and Young, where Braithwaite was within earshot. Kyriakakos, the driver, yelled out the passenger window at Braithwaite, saying: “I got something for you.”

As Braithwaite walked toward the Jeep, Abdi fired six shots from a 9-mm handgun. Braithwaite tried to run away but collapsed and died in front of the Young Street Food Mart.

One bullet went through the window of a basement apartment and another through the building’s main door. A fifth bullet went through a window of the food mart. A sixth bullet was not recovered.

Abdi, who was born in Kenya, has distanced himself from criminal associates in custody and has expressed remorse for the killing, according to an Impact of Race and Culture Assessment report commissioned by the defence. The report is akin to a Gladue report, which is used in the sentencing of Indigenous offenders.

In shooting Braithwaite, Abdi showed “an absolute disregard for your fellow citizens and the law itself,” Martin said.

“I’m hopeful that you are remorseful, but I’m not really convinced,” he said.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca