Family and friends gathered just after midnight Saturday to honour one of the victims of a Friday crash that killed three people.
Faisal Yousef, 32, was remembered at the location of the single-vehicle crash, at a Starbucks in south-central Edmonton on Calgary Trail just north of 55 Avenue Northwest.
Around 50 people who were at the memorial laid down flowers and lit candles that spelled out the victim’s name.
Yousef is being remembered as a kind, caring man.
“He was a gentle soul, he was very kind,” Guled Aden, one of Yousef’s friends, said. “He was the sun — he had a big afro, kind of reminded me of the sun.
“He was a guy that was always there for us no matter what.”
Aden said that his friend had many who loved him in the city — because of his ability to make connections with others.
“He just impacted our lives in all different ways, whether it was just a hello, or talking sports or having a drink,” Aden said. “He was just that kind of guy that said, ‘Hey how’s it going?’ and wanted to get to know who you, rather than just a fly-by person.”
The family is raising money for Yousef’s funeral costs through GoFundMe.
Yousef was a passenger in an Audi RS5 sedan that crashed into a Starbucks just after 2 a.m. Friday. He was killed along with two women aged 20 and 21, who were also passengers in the vehicle.
The driver, a 25-year-old man from Ontario, wasn’t at the scene when police arrived but was arrested later at his residence. Police took him to hospital with serious injuries.
On Saturday, police said they had charged Oscar Benjumea with three counts of dangerous driving causing death, three counts of failure to stop at scene of accident and one count of operation while disqualified.
Benjumea is set to appear at a bail hearing on July 6.
“It’s just really sad to see that kind of happened, that transpired, but we are thinking of Faisal, we’re also thinking about the two ladies that passed away too as well and of course for the gentleman that was driving,” Aden said.
Police said they believe “excessive speed was involved” in the collision.
The two women who died in the crash have not yet been identified.
Aden said that while he feels anger towards Benjumea, he also believes the situation is all-around a tragedy.
“It’s not right to spread hate towards him,” he said. “We’re all angry, upset with what he did, but I think the biggest thing is, we’re all Edmontonians, we’re powerful people and we should all come together and make sure that we show love towards him.”
Anyone with information about the collision is asked to call police at 780-423-4567 or #377 on their mobile device.
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