York Regional Police have identified the 26-year-old man killed in a brazen shooting at a Richmond Hill cemetery Thursday afternoon.
Investigators say Ayub Hirsi Ali of Barrie was one of two men injured at the Toronto Muslim Cemetery on Leslie Street around 3:30 p.m. Thursday. Ali was taken to hospital in life-threatening condition and succumbed to his injuries. Police believe Ali was targeted.
A 27-year-old man identified to Global News by those attending the funeral as an Uber driver was also injured. York Regional Police say he remains in hospital in serious condition.
Ahmed Mohamed tells Global News that the shooting happened as his younger brother Gidid Mohamed’s funeral was winding down. The 27-year-old Toronto man was fatally shot outside a Somali social club near Lawrence Avenue and Weston Road Tuesday morning.
Read more: 1 man dead, another injured in shooting at Richmond Hill cemetery: police
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“We heard shots. We ran out of the street,” said Mohamed, explaining that the shot was heard from the entrance to the cemetery.
A 37-year-old man was also wounded in the Tuesday morning shooting but survived. Mohamed’s brother says that man, who was shot in the leg, was also attending the funeral when the bullets started flying.
No arrests have been made in either case, but York Regional Police say they are looking for three suspects who fled the cemetery in an SUV, traveling north on Leslie Street. The suspects are described as male and were wearing hoodies and masks.
In September 2015, Ayub Hirsi Ali, then 20, was arrested by Toronto police’s gang and weapons unit for first-degree murder in the shooting death of Kabil Abdulkhadir outside from the downtown Toronto Marriott a month earlier.
According to court documents obtained by Global News, a jury convicted Ali of the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter in June 2018. He was sentenced to nine years in prison minus pre-sentence custody leaving three years and 11 months for complete.
Still a very active scene here. A dozen officers with metal detectors are carefully combing the cemetery grounds for evidence. Yesterday’s fatal shooting at a funeral for a man gunned down two days earlier has sent shock waves throughout the community. No word on arrests @YRP pic.twitter.com/zzHTm17GE8
— Catherine McDonald (@cmcdonaldglobal) August 12, 2022
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Dozens of police officers spent the day Friday at Toronto’s Muslim cemetery, continuing their forensic investigation of the scene, including using metal detectors to search for evidence.
People who came to pay their respects to loved ones buried at the cemetery were shocked to see the crime tape.
“Unbelievable,” said a man who came to visit his son’s grave only to learn the cemetery was closed because of a shooting, not knowing there had been a murder here.
Another woman who was visiting a grave Thursday at the time of the shooting and returned Friday said it was terrifying and wondered why there wasn’t more security at the cemetery.
Investigators are asking witnesses who were at the cemetery Thursday afternoon and have not yet come forward to contact them. They are also looking for video surveillance in the area or anyone who may have captured the dashcam video on Leslie Street.
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