{"id":151283,"date":"2025-09-17T21:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T21:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/151283\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T21:54:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T21:54:11","slug":"canadas-former-most-wanted-fugitive-gets-9-year-sentence-in-fatal-shooting-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/151283\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada\u2019s former most wanted fugitive gets 9-year sentence in fatal shooting – Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"

The family of Craig MacDonald broke down in tears inside a Toronto courtroom Wednesday, upset after a judge sentenced Abilaziz Mohamed to nine years in prison for manslaughter.<\/p>\n

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Crown prosecutors had been asking for a sentence of 12 to 13 years. Defence lawyers suggested six to seven were more appropriate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe animals who are carrying around guns right now, your life means nothing to them, and shockingly, our lives mean very little to the justice system too,\u201d said Drema MacDonald, the victim\u2019s sister, after the sentence was delivered.<\/p>\n

The deadly shooting happened during a chaotic scene in the parking lot of a Boston Pizza restaurant near Morningside and Milner avenues on Oct. 13, 2021, after the two men got into an altercation over a previous incident.<\/p>\n

Superior Court Justice Michael Brown summarized the facts of the case, saying both men had consumed alcohol, tensions were high and tempers were short.<\/p>\n

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Brown explained, \u201cThere were lingering feelings of anger and resentment in regards to a previous incident at \u2018Danny\u2019s\u2019 a month earlier,\u201d where the men, who were strangers, first met.<\/p>\n

Just moments before the shooting, as he was leaving the pizza restaurant, Mohamed testified that MacDonald had violently assaulted him from behind.<\/p>\n

As MacDonald re-emerged from the restaurant and began running towards him with his hands in the air, Mohamed admitted he pulled a loaded semi-automatic handgun from his pocket and cocked it before firing two shots. One bullet hit MacDonald in the chest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI accepted the evidence of the defendant that he lost his cool, wasn\u2019t himself and had been drinking. I was not satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that he intended to kill him when he shot him. Nor was I convinced if he shot him, (that he knew) he was likely to cause bodily harm,\u201d Brown said in his reasons for sentence.<\/p>\n

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Mohamed fled the scene after the shooting and testified a day later that he still had he gun that he had purchased the month before for $2,000 for protection after being robbed.<\/p>\n

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Mohamed, named Canada\u2019s most wanted by the Bolo or \u201cbe on the lookout\u201d program in April 2022, was found guilty of manslaughter in February after a judge-alone trial for second-degree murder. Mohamed\u2019s arrest in April 2022 came just hours after his photo was widely circulated, and a $250,000 reward was offered for information leading to an arrest.<\/p>\n

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He was originally charged with first-degree murder. Mohamed was arrested after being spotted in hospital in the Durham region, where he was admitted for treatment of diabetes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe circumstances of this offence are exceedingly serious,\u201d Brown told the court in handing down the sentence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIncluding that Mohamed, while on two separate weapons prohibition orders, armed himself with a loaded firearm and then proceeded to attend public venues, including Boston Pizza, where other patrons were in attendance. In the course of an altercation, he discharged a loaded firearm, killing Craig MacDonald,\u201d said Brown.<\/p>\n

Brown said mitigating circumstances in sentencing included the fact that Mohamed grew up in a high-crime neighbourhood and believed he was subject to anti-black racism.<\/p>\n

\u201cAround October 2012, when Mohamed was approximately 22 years old, he was shot in the parking lot where he lived. He reported this to police but no arrest was ever made,\u201d said Brown.<\/p>\n

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Brown also summarized the harsh and restrictive conditions he experienced while in pre-sentence custody. Mohamed spent 70 of his 152 days at the Toronto South Detention Centre in lockdown, mostly due to staff shortages. After being transferred to the Toronto East Detention Centre, he spent 756 of his 1,045 days being triple bunked, which meant he spent many nights sleeping on the floor.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn my view, the proper range of sentencing falls within the mid range of eight to 12 years, however, in light of the constellation of mitigating factors, I have concluded that a sentence less than the maximum sentence in this range should be imposed,\u201d he told the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public in this province continues to experience a staggering amount of gun violence, especially in the Toronto area. The objectives of the protection of the public, general deterrence and denunciation should be given priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCraig MacDonald\u2019s family speaks to Global News.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGlobal News\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

After enhanced credit for pre-sentence custody, Mohamed has three years and 11 months left to serve of his sentence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really disappointing outcome given the seriousness of this crime,\u201d said Drema MacDonald, recalling that when Mohamed was at large, a reward of up to $250,000 was being offered for information leading to his arrest.<\/p>\n

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\u201cTo say that somebody was walking around with a loaded gun didn\u2019t intend to use it, didn\u2019t intend to kill somebody with it, is ludicrous. Really hard to accept, and I think what we see here, judgments like this, sentences like this, is exactly what Toronto is the way it is right now. There\u2019s not enough consequence.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of Craig MacDonald broke down in tears inside a Toronto courtroom Wednesday, upset after a judge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,2169,44,80129,80130],"class_list":{"0":"post-151283","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-toronto-crime","13":"tag-toronto-shooting"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}