An Edmonton man who dreamed of a career in sports management, after being stranded in North America due to war in his homeland, was killed Monday morning.
Ahmed Ali, 27, died after his car broke down on Anthony Henday Drive, just east of Heritage Valley Road, a mere minute before a friend arrived to help him.
Ali was driving to work around 8:30 a.m. when his Volkswagen Passat broke down on the southwest leg of Edmonton’s ring road.
He had tried to pull over to safety and had his hazard lights on, but was still in the far right eastbound driving lane.
His friends said he contacted roadside assistance but was told a tow truck could take up to 90 minutes to arrive. He then called his friend Shahbaz Asif for help.
Asif was at his gym in the west end but said he ended his workout, grabbed his stuff and jumped in the vehicle to go help his friend. The drive was expected to take about 15 minutes.
As he headed towards his stranded friend, the two remained on a phone call.
“I heard the fear in his voice,” Asif said. “He said, ‘I’m scared someone will hit me, brother.’ I told him, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be there soon.’”
Ali never got the chance to see him. Asif said he was 1.6 km away when tragedy struck.
“All of a sudden, I heard him scream — and then bang,” he said.
“I kept on yelling, ‘Ahmed, Ahmed please answer, answer, bro, like answer to me!’
“I didn’t hear anything from him.”
Asif pulled up to the scene and found Ali badly injured inside his car.
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Another motorist also stopped and began CPR after they pulled the injured man from his crumpled vehicle, but Ali did not survive.
The Edmonton Police Service said his car was hit from behind at highway speed by a Dodge Ram.
“It just broke my heart,” Asif said.
Family and friends say Ali was ambitious, optimistic and deeply committed to his future.
As a teenager in 2014, he was among 30 students from Yemen who took part in what was supposed to be a 10-month high school exchange program to the United States.
“Ahmed was in Alaska, actually, which was a very strange transition to go from Yemen to Alaska — but he did really well and he built some beautiful relationships there,” said his friend Saba Al-Leswas, who was also one of the exchange students and now is in Hamilton, Ont.
Months later, war broke out in Yemen and the students were unable to go home, leaving many of them without family support in North America.
“It was difficult. We were kids and none of us had any family in the U.S. or Canada,” Saba said.
“So we kind of bonded and we were there for each other.”
Al-Leswas moved to Montreal in 2018 and Ali followed her a year later, seeking asylum in Canada. She said he quickly formed new friendships in a new country that came with new languages and customs.
“I don’t know what I would have done without having him there in Montreal with me during such a difficult time,” she said. “He was just such a lovable guy and so easygoing.”
They were neighbours in Montreal before Ali moved to Edmonton three years ago.
Ali worked at Edmonton International Airport as a screening officer, was taking classes at MacEwan University and volunteered as a youth soccer coach, while planning to pursue a career in sports.
“He wanted to work in sports management, and he was really good at it,” said Al-Leswas. “He was into all kinds of sports — football, basketball — and he was a good player, too.”
Ali has no immediate family in Canada. The last time he saw his family was in 2023 in Jordan, which Al-Leswas said was the first time they’d been reunited since the war separated them nine years prior.
“He’s an only child. He seems like such a momma’s boy,” Al-Leswas said tearfully, her voice choked up with emotion.
“I’m so glad he got to see his mom. I just keep thinking about how young he is.”
In the hours after his death, Asif turned to social media to locate relatives overseas.
A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to cover funeral costs, including efforts to return Ali’s body to his mother.
“His family (lost) out on 11 years of being with (their) child and for this to happen, I can’t even imagine the heartbreak. I keep thinking about all of them,” Al-Leswas said.
“It’s really sad,” Asif said. “I’ll miss my friend a lot.”
Police have not released any other details about the crash other than to say the 23-year-old man driving the Dodge pickup was taken to hospital for precautionary reasons and the EPS Major Collision Investigations Section is investigating.
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