Accused killer found hiding at crime scene, court told

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This article was published 06/11/2019 (2312 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hours after police found Mustafa Peyawary dead inside a Killarney Avenue apartment, investigators made another shocking discovery: one of his accused killers was hiding in a closet, jurors heard Wednesday.

Const. Jason Dee, a member of the Winnipeg Police Service’s identification unit, arrived at the suite at 2:35 a.m., on Aug. 13, 2017, four and a half hours after police had discovered Peyawary’s body and supposedly cleared the scene of suspects.

Dee told jurors he went to a bedroom to confirm bedding had been removed by paramedics to help preserve evidence. “As I turned around to leave the room, I saw what I thought was just a pair of shoes in the closet,” he said. “It turned out the shoes were attached to a human, that being Mr. Ismail.”

Ahamed Althaaf Ismail, 31, Matthew Marjanovic, 31, Damir Kulic, 29, and Aram Soroush, 27, are on trial for first-degree murder in Peyawary’s beating death.

“I pointed my firearm at (Ismail) and told him to get on the ground, face-first,” Dee said.

Dee and his partner handcuffed Ismail and radioed for backup.

Dee said his purpose in going the apartment was to identify the deceased and that he assumed the scene had been cleared.

“It’s not our duty to clear the suite,” he said. “As police officers, we’re always aware of officer safety issues. However, this particular event happened hours prior to our arrival and the actual suite was under guard. Our assumption was the suite was cleared.”

Const. Michael Peters testified he had just arrived outside the apartment to relieve other officers at the scene when an officer came over the radio “very upset, looking for other units to assist, that there was another suspect within the confines of the apartment.”

Peters and his partner took custody of the suspect, who appeared to have blood on his shoes, pants and hand.

In earlier testimony, Sarah Akimyemi, whose apartment was next door to where Peyawary was killed, told court she had just returned home from volunteer work and was watching television around 9:30 p.m. when she heard “super loud” thumping sounds and screaming coming from the apartment.

Akimyemi called police, who arrived shortly after 10 p.m. and found Peyawary dead on the living room floor. His hand and feet had been bound with zip ties, and his head was covered with cloth and a plastic bag.

Const. Keith Ivany said he and his partner were in the process of clearing the apartment when a man, who was later identified as Kulic, walked out of a hallway closet.

“There was a brief pause and we all sort of looked at each other” before the man complied with a police demand to get on the floor, Ivany said.

Ivany said police found “a little bit of blood” on the man’s clothes, and latex gloves in his pockets.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca