Fatally shooting a man in a southeast Calgary hotel room has landed a confessed killer a 15-year prison term.
Calgary Court of King’s Bench Justice Chidinma Thompson on Monday accepted a joint Crown and defence submission after Ahmed Abdi Hassan pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter.
Abdi Hassan, 31, had been scheduled to stand trial on a charge of second-degree murder in the March 25, 2024, shooting death of Liban Abdirahman inside a Super 8 hotel room on Shawville Road S.E.
But defence counsel Balfour Der told Thompson his client was maintaining his plea of not guilty to murder and would instead admit a charge of manslaughter with a firearm in Abdirahman’s death.
Crown prosecutor Margot Engley then read in a statement of agreed facts detailing the deadly incident inside room 415 at the hotel.
Engley said Abdi Hassan, Abdirahman and a third man, Mowlid Yusuf, had travelled from Edmonton to Calgary the previous day and were invited by a female acquaintance, Ifrah Hassan, to stay overnight in her room.
There, Abdi Hassan and Abdirahman “consumed a significant amount of alcohol and cocaine throughout the night,” Engley told Thompson.
Hassan left the hotel for an appointment at 12:04 p.m. on March 25 and the homicide occurred about two hours later, the prosecutor said.
“At the preliminary inquiry she described the level of Mr. Abdi Hassan’s intoxication as ‘so bad’ and that he didn’t ‘even know what he was doing at the time,’” Engley said.
While away from the room, Hassan spoke to Yusuf on the phone.
“She could hear Mr. Abdi Hassan and Mr. Abdirahman arguing in the background,” the prosecutor said.
Abdi Hassan has a semi-automatic handgun equipped with a magazine, which was loaded with multiple live rounds of 9mm ammunition, court was told.
“From the doorway area of the hotel room, Mr. Abdi Hassan shot at Mr. Abdirahman, who was slightly further into the hotel room … seven times,” Engley said.
Three of the shots struck him in the back of his body, including one in the back of his head, which perforated the frontal lobe of his brain, the prosecutor said.
Engley said there were multiple aggravating factors to justify a sentence of 15 years, including that Abdi Hassan was not only armed with a gun, but carried it on a regular basis, and the victim was shot from behind.
But Der said his client’s guilty plea not only spared the victim’s family from having to live through a full trial, but also showed his client’s remorse for his crime.
Thompson noted Abdi Hassan also offered an apology to the victim’s mother, who waived him off as he spoke directly towards her.
As part of the joint submission, Abdi Hassan must serve a minimum of half his time in custody before he can seek parole.
With credit for time served on remand, the killer will have a little more than 12 years left to serve.
Der told Thompson that means his client won’t be able to seek his release until June 24, 2032.
Catch up with the day’s headlines, curated by our editors and delivered to your email inbox at lunchtime on every business day. Sign up now for the Calgary Herald Noon News Roundup.