The family of a man shot and killed outside an Old Strathcona bar over the weekend has identified him as Amin Abdullahi and say they are upset police are telling the public he was known to them.
“Anybody you ask that knows him would tell you that they would never in a million years think that there’d be a slight chance of him dying by the hand of a gun, but it happened and unfortunately it happens a lot, but it needs to stop,” Abdi Warsame, Abdullahi’s cousin, said from Ottawa, where he lives. “I don’t understand why this happened. If you tell anybody who knows him, ‘this guy was involved in a gang or he was a drug dealer,’ they would laugh because that’s not his style.”
READ MORE: ‘All I heard was gunshots firing’: 1 dead, 1 injured in shooting off Edmonton’s Whyte Ave
Police said one man was killed while another was injured after gunfire broke out near Tribute Lounge off Whyte Avenue early Sunday morning.
“They were at the bar prior to the incident,” EPS Staff Sgt. Duane Hunter said Sunday. “There was some type of argument inside the bar which moved outside.”
Police said the parties involved were known to them.
Court documents show Abdullahi had a criminal history that included possession of stolen property, trafficking (March 2015), and failing to appear in the Northwest Territories. In August 2015, a written order was issued by a judge authorizing his arrest.
According to Warsame, Abdullahi hails from Kenya but moved to Canada in the early 2000s and grew up in east Ottawa. He said his cousin had a passion for football but a knee injury after high school forced him to give up the sport. About a year ago, he said Abdullahi moved to Calgary in search of work. His brother had recently moved to Edmonton and Warsame said the two were having a night out in Alberta’s capital to celebrate Amin’s return from a trip to see family in Africa.
“I’m still having a hard time adapting to the fact that he’s gone, that he’s not here – he was basically a big, gentle giant – he had a lot of friends,” Warsame said.
“He lit up the room as soon as he walked in.”
Warsame said he is upset that police are saying his cousin was known to them without elaborating.
“They probably would have known him by the minor things like public intoxication or traffic tickets – stuff like that,” he said. “If they’re going to say that they knew the person, they should explain how they knew the person. He didn’t have a criminal record, and his brother also did not have a criminal record.
“My cousin is the type of person if he sees someone being picked on, he’ll try to help them. I think this had something to do with it; he was trying to help somebody and unfortunately the other person had a weapon and he did not know that. If he had known that, he would obviously ignore the whole situation.”
Abdullahi’s family has issued a statement about his death, which reads, in part:
“Our family wants Amin to be remembered as the respectable, big-hearted man he was.
“He loved life, football and family. The Ottawa community is mourning. He lived here for years until deciding to move to Alberta for more opportunity. He wasn’t into illegal activity nor known to police. This was a senseless act where Amin was tragically taken from us too early. He brought laughter into every room and happiness to all those around him. It’s surreal to know he will never come home and we are devastated to no longer have him with us. A piece of everyone who loved him went with him.”
Abdullahi’s brother, who was injured when the violence broke out, is now in stable condition.
READ MORE: ‘We’re scrambling big time’: Edmonton homicide detectives investigate 6 deaths in 6 days
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article previously stated that police had arrested a suspect but not laid any charges. It has since been corrected to say police have not made any arrests in connection with the death. The correction was made on Tuesday, March 29, 2016 at 6:55 p.m. MT. It was updated on March 30 with criminal history.
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