The husband of a woman killed trying to stop a gas and dash in northwest Calgary has died in a car crash in British Columbia, friends confirmed to Global News.
According to reports, Ahmad Nourani Shallo was travelling from Vancouver to Calgary with his new wife and his eight-year-old son when the crash happened on the Trans-Canada Highway.
BC RCMP said the crash involved five vehicles and happened near the east entrance to Glacier National Park at around 5:40 p.m. on Thursday.
Witnesses told officers that an eastbound Mazda 5 was in a passing lane when it struck a westbound pickup truck and trailer.
“The resulting impact forced the Mazda into the vehicle it was passing,” a Monday news release stated. “It was struck by a loaded commercial transport truck on the driver’s side. The Mazda then struck the fifth vehicle and came to rest in the ditch.”
RCMP confirmed a woman and an eight-year-old were taken to hospital with unspecified injuries. Shallo was pronounced dead at the scene.
RCMP said heavy rain may have played a role in the crash.
Salar Yosefi, a friend of Shallo’s, said his heart and thoughts are with the young boy.
“He has seen more tragedy than a child should see—first losing his mother and now his father,” Yosefi told Global News.
Yosefi said Shallo decided to move to Vancouver after Rashidi’s death in order to honour her wishes for their son.
“He told me that his wife was the one who wanted to move to Canada because she wanted their son to have access to more opportunities and a better life and he wanted to honour that wish. I think that says a lot about Ahmad–that he chose to stay in a country where he didn’t really know the language, or the system, without the support of family or friends, with all the responsibilities that come with being a single parent and to face all that adversity to provide a better life for his son.”
Ehsan Hosseini, another family friend, said the entire community is devastated, shocked and worried about Shallo’s seven-year-old son Korosh.
“It’s like in movies. You can’t imagine such a tragedy happening to kid at this age. He’s at a point where he needs a mom and dad to be around him,” Hosseini said. “It’s so hard to believe such a thing can happen to a family.”
At the time, Shallo was driving to Calgary to mark the second anniversary of the death of his wife, Maryam Rashidi.
Rashidi was killed in June 2015 as she tried to stop a pickup truck with a tank full of stolen gas from leaving a northwest Calgary Centex station.
A jury found Joshua Mitchel guilty of manslaughter in Rashidi’s death. His sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 30.
With files from John Hua and Jill Croteau
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