‘Allegiances and revenge’: gang drug war precipitated 2022 shootout, Crown says

A downtown shootout that left one man dead and sent another to hospital was sparked by a beef over drug turf, a Winnipeg court heard this week.

Twenty-seven-year-old Gunni Hassen is on trial for second-degree murder in the Feb. 9, 2022, shooting death of 30-year-old Abduwasi Ahmed.

“This case is about gang rivalry, specifically the ongoing retaliatory violence between two gangs,” prosecutor Libby Standil told King’s Bench Justice Chris Martin in a brief introductory overview of the Crown’s case Monday.

“While the rivalry has its roots in competition over the drug trade, it’s about more than that — it’s about allegiances and revenge,” Standil said, not identifying the gangs by name.

Around the time of the killing, Hassen and other members of his gang were working out of a McDermot Avenue apartment block, and enlisted the building’s two caretakers as drivers during drug deals, Standil alleged.

“In addition to driving, (the caretakers) allowed Hassen and others to prepare and package crack cocaine in their suite, and they would receive crack as payment for their assistance,” she said.

Shortly before the killing, a male caretaker was driving Hassen and another gang member around in an orange Chevrolet Equinox “to conduct business,” when Hassen received a message that rival gang members had been spotted near Garry Street and Portage Avenue, Standil alleged.

“What Gunni Hassen might not have expected, was that one of the men in that group, Abduwasi Ahmed, would also be armed,” Standil said.

Hassen, Standil alleged, directed the driver to take them to Fort Street, south of Portage Avenue, where Hassen and the other gang member got out of the vehicle. The two men walked down an alley toward a Garry Street parking lot where they came upon Ahmed and four other men.

“Almost immediately after the two groups encountered one another, the other four members of Ahmed’s group scattered as shooting broke out,” Standil said, noting much of the shooting and its aftermath was captured on security video.

Hassen’s companion “was struck by shots we say were fired by the victim,” Standil said.

Security video shows a man, who prosecutors allege is Hassen, shooting in Ahmed’s direction; one shot hit him in the forehead before he collapsed to the ground.

Hassen left his companion behind, returned to his car and was driven back to the McDermot Avenue apartment building, where he exchanged jackets with the caretaker, who rebuffed Hassen’s plea to hide his gun.

Hassen and a female companion were driving the same car two days later when police pulled them over for a traffic stop and arrested them on drug charges.

Standil alleged the GPS from one of several cellphones seized from Hassen during the traffic stop placed it at the shooting scene at the time Ahmed was killed.

The trial is set for four weeks.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca