The Somali immigrant charged with attempted murder in connection with a weekend vehicle and knife attack in Edmonton, Alberta, was detained in the United States pending deportation before claiming refugee status in Canada, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.
Abdulahi
Hasan Sharif, 30, is accused of
running down a police officer with his
car on Saturday night and then stabbing him repeatedly. Police said he
fled before driving a U-Haul truck into four pedestrians during an
attempt to evade capture.
Sharif was in custody
in the United States for about four months in the summer and autumn of
2011, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokeswoman Lauren
Mack said in a statement.
He was ordered
deported to Somalia but released on an “order of supervision” on Nov.
23, 2011. Sharif did not appear for a scheduled meeting in January 2012,
and efforts to locate him “were not successful,” the statement said.
Sharif “had no known criminal history at the time of his encounters with ICE,” the ICE statement added.
Canadian
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Sharif made a refugee claim
at a Canadian border crossing in 2012 and obtained refugee status later
that year.
In 2015, a complaint led police to
probe Sharif’s alleged extremist ideology, but officers found no grounds
for criminal charges after what the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
described as an “exhaustive investigation.”
Goodale
said on Monday it would be wrong to blame the attack on any
shortcomings in Canada’s immigration and refugee vetting system.
Sharif,
who faces 11 charges including five counts of attempted murder,
appeared via video in an Edmonton court on Tuesday wearing an orange
jail uniform. He had a Somali interpreter, although he did not speak.
He
occasionally looked down or clasped his hands in front of him and still
bore facial bruises that police say he sustained while evading capture.
A
community leader, Mahamad Accord, who did not speak to Sharif but
learned about him from the local Somali community, said Sharif was from a
Somali ethnic minority and little known in the community.
Edmonton police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sharif’s
lawyer, Chady Moustarah, said he had stepped in on short notice to help
someone without representation but that the accused would have to find
another lawyer going forward. Sharif remains in custody until his next
court appearance, scheduled for Nov. 14.(The Reuters)
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