Two B.C. men have been sentenced to 10 years in prison each after pleading guilty to attempted murder in B.C. Supreme Court.
Liban Hassan, 38, and Ahmed Ismail, 27, attempted to gun down Mir Aali Hussain in Vancouver on Oct. 6, 2020 for a payment of $150,000.
“Paid executioners being hired to kill a perfect stranger, who go about their business without regard to the prospect of collateral damage to blameless bystanders, is deserving of the highest rebuke,” Justice David Crossin said.
“But for the fact Mr. Ismail could not shoot straight, I have no doubt both offenders would now be serving life sentences, and considering what to do with their lives in prison for the next, at least, 25 years,” he said.
In his Oct. 4 decision released Oct. 25, Crossin called the case “horrific.”
He said Hassan and Ismail were contracted by others to travel to Vancouver to kill or kidnap Hussain.
Crossin said Hussain appeared to be targeted due to a turf war between Metro Vancouver rival gangs in the drug trade.
The judge said the planning was “memorialized in exquisite detail, by all participants in the scheme, in hundreds of text messages retrieved from phones during the investigation.”
Prior to doing so, they got masks, a Jeep Cherokee getaway vehicle, a .45 Glock Model 30 semi-automatic pistol for Ismail and a 9 mm polymer 80 semi-automatic pistol for Hassan.
They settled on attempting to kill Hussain at West 29th Avenue and Dunbar Street in Vancouver.
Nine shots rang out as Hussain was walking and carrying his six‑month‑old baby in a car seat. Slightly behind, his wife followed with their three‑year‑old child.
He was hit twice. Ismail fired eight shots and Hassan managed to get off one shot before his gun jammed.
They then attempted to flee in the Jeep.
“Mr. Hassan was in the passenger seat, but almost immediately fell out onto the street and then attempted to escape on foot,” Crossin said. “Mr. Ismail carried on and soon ran the Jeep into a parked car. Adding to this haplessness, as it happens, two unmarked police vehicles were in the immediate location responding to an unrelated matter.”
Ismail and Hassan were quickly captured, “leaving a trail of incriminating evidence in their wake,” Crossin said.
“The crime was planned and deliberate and carried out for financial gain,” Crossin said. “Numerous shots were fired in circumstances where innocent bystanders, including small children, were clearly in harm's way.”
Court documents state a public library was hit with bullets.
The judge said he hoped the “botched murder” would give the pair a chance to rethink their lives.
