Family describes ‘indescribable’ loss of man killed in Mississauga restaurant shooting in 2021
The mother of a man who died in a shooting at their family-owned restaurant in Mississauga three years ago told a Brampton courtroom Thursday “the emptiness he left behind is indescribable.”
Rania Akl was working with her family at Chicken Land on Glen Erin Drive and The Collegeway in Mississauga on May 29, 2021, when a man entered and opened fire at the entire family and a friend.
“The image of my boys lying on the ground, my husband in blood and my daughter screaming is a memory I will never forget,” Akl said in a victim impact statement read by her daughter, Sandra, at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice during the sentencing hearing for the three men convicted in the case.
Akl’s 25-year-old son, Naim, died in the attack, while she suffered a gunshot wound to her arm. Her other son, husband, and a family friend also sustained gunshot wounds. Her daughter was shot at but escaped uninjured.
Anand Nath, the shooter, Suliman Raza, the getaway driver, and Naqash Abbasi, described as the mastermind behind the attack, were found guilty in June by a 12-member jury and are already facing life sentences for first-degree murder of Naim, with no possibility of parole for 25 years.
Crown prosecutor Brian McGuire is asking for a life sentence for all three men for the five counts of attempted murder, while defence lawyers are asking for a sentence from 17 to 25 years.
“This easily could have been six counts of first-degree murder,” McGuire said.
Adam Newman, Abbasi’s defence lawyer, said his client has faced harsh conditions while being held in a correctional facility during the COVID-19 pandemic, which should be taken into consideration during sentencing.
“Life sentences are appropriate but not always necessary,” Newman said.
Crown said men had ‘extremist motive’
McGuire said on Thursday the sole motive behind the plan to wipe out the Akl family was because Naim found out about the men sending money to the terrorist group ISIS from their Amazon warehouse fulfilment business, named TryALinc.
It was “an extreme crime fuelled by an extremist motive,” he said.
Newman disagreed, and said evidence from the case instead points to business fallout than links to any terror activity.
“He is religious, for sure, but not an extremist,” he said.
The three men are not facing any terrorism charges.
Speaking at an unrelated news conference on July 31, RCMP Supt. James Pan said the decision about whether to lay terror charges “comes back down to evidence.” He said the evidence needed to lay such charges against the three men responsible for the shooting at Chicken Land was not there.
Abbasi, 34, was born in Pakistan but grew up in Canada, has a four-year-old daughter and did charity work before his incarceration, Newman said.
McGuire called Abbasi a “violent man,” pointing out he fired 10 shots from a semi-auto rifle at a Mississauga home in 2012 to silence a teenage witness in his friend’s trial. Abbasi was later convicted of seven criminal charges for the shooting.
Abbasi was on parole for the above crime during the shooting at Chicken Land, McGuire said.
On the other hand, Raza’s lawyer, Gurpreet Dhaliwal, said he has known his client since 2017, calling him a “playful and kind” man. Raza was born in Kuwait and was raised in Mississauga, where he was good at school, athletic and hard working during his undergraduate years, Dhaliwal said.
Kendra Stanyon, who is Nath’s defence lawyer, said her client separated from his family when he was 17, and that this case reunited them. “He was a reasonably naive individual,” she said.
‘He was my right-hand man’: victim’s father
Other members of the Akl family, including Naim’s brother, Daniel, also spoke at Thursday’s hearing.
He read out his own victim impact statement, as well as one from his father, Jihad, expressing the suffering the family continues to go through since the shooting.
“He was my right-hand man,” Jihad said in his statement, referring to Naim. “I pass by the cemetery daily where Naim was laid before going to work.”
He said Naim’s death has left a “void in our lives” and that he hopes no parent has to experience what he did.
Naim’s sister, Sandra, who was 13 at the time of the shooting, spoke fondly about her brother, who she said she remembers through stories others tell her about him.
One such memory she said is that her brother was “obsessed” with her when she was a baby.
Sandra also read her mother’s statement, which said “some of the simplest tasks have become hard for me to complete” due to the gunshot wound on her arm.
“When he passed away a part of my heart went away with him,” Rania’s statement said.
“I miss his hugs… never wanting to let go.”
Justice David Harris will sentence the three men on Oct. 1.
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