Pubdate: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 Source: Toronto Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2000 The Toronto Star Contact: One Yonge St., Toronto ON, M5E 1E6 Fax: (416) 869-4322 Website: http://www.thestar.com/ Forum: http://www.thestar.com/editorial/disc_board/ Author: Jim Rankin RAID LEAVES PAINFUL MEMORIES Man Accuses Drug Squad Of Beating Him Viciously Beneath a lone tree, in a field not far from his home, Abdulkadir Mohamoud abruptly turns his head. There are tears in his eyes, ones he did not want his children to see. He wipes them away with long, slender fingers, apologizes and continues telling his story. "They humiliated me," Mohamoud said. They are Toronto police drug squad officers attached to a unit mired in controversy. Last week, eight former members of Central Field Command Drugs were charged with theft, fraud and breach of trust in an alleged money-skimming scheme. On April 27, 1999, four drug squad officers, including two charged in that alleged scheme, stormed a west-end home looking for khat. The leafy stimulant popular in the Somali community had just been deemed by Canada to be a controlled substance as nefarious as cocaine and heroin. According to Mohamoud, he was at the house with his brother and several friends, waiting to see an old friend who was recovering from a stroke and recent brain surgery. They were about to have tea when the front door flew off its hinges with a thunder so great, it conjured up for Mohamoud memories of the land-mine explosions he had heard so often before leaving his homeland of Somalia. Mohamoud says the officers, none of whom were in uniform, stayed for nearly two hours, during which time his right elbow was broken and his left arm badly swollen. His arms and hands weren't much use for weeks afterward, and his wife would have to help him use the bathroom. His nose was also bloodied. There was a lump on his head. He is almost certain he was out cold for a spell. According to police, Mohamoud had been violent and tried to escape. Mohamoud says that's not true. The 40-year-old father of three was charged later that night with assault resisting arrest and possession of khat. No one else in the house was charged with drug possession. An officer served Mohamoud the papers as he lay in bed at Humber River Regional Hospital, where police had taken him after his arrest. A worried doctor had ordered him kept there after X-rays revealed a fracture. The charges against Mohamoud have since been dropped, as have charges in at least 50 other cases involving certain drug squad members. The fact that Mohamoud's injuries were caused by police is not in dispute. In October, 1999, nearly six months after the raid, Mohamoud filed a formal complaint with the Toronto police force over the events of that April night. He was interviewed by two complaint officers, as were a number of civilian witnesses. And then, nothing. Two months ago, he finally received word from a Toronto police officer in charge of reviewing complaint investigations. In his opinion, there was ``insufficient evidence'' to support the allegations. The civilian witnesses, whose stories differed to varying degrees, were not thought to be "independent." The officers' version of events, which complaint investigators gleaned from their notes and written statements, was consistent. End of story, as far as the force is concerned. It is not for Mohamoud, who has appealed the decision to the Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services. He also considered a lawsuit, but he's run out of money to pay a lawyer. The allegations in this case, like others levelled of late against certain members of the squad, were serious. Mohamoud says he was on the ground when he was kicked twice in the head and then left hog-tied, with his feet tethered to his cuffed hands by telephone wire, for over an hour. He alleges an officer stepped hard on his restrained arms, which is when he believes his elbow was broken. As his trial date for the khat and assault police charges was nearing, Mohamoud, laid off from a clerical job he had held with the Ontario Securities Commission for 11 years, was offered a deal: If he would agree to sign a peace bond, the charges would go away. He refused. This past spring, a provincial crown attorney withdrew the assault police charge without explanation. The khat charge went away as well when a federal prosecutor decided it would be a waste of court time to proceed on a simple possession charge. Mohamoud maintains he never had any khat on him and would say so if he had. According to notes made by officers involved in the raid, Abdulkadir Mohamoud was violently out of control the night of April 27, 1999, tried to escape and had to be forcefully subdued. Mohamoud and three civilian witness who spoke to The Star say it was the officers who were out of line. Search-warrant documents viewed by The Star indicate a confidential informant had told an officer earlier in the day about a home on Maybank Ave., near St. Clair Ave. W. and Weston Rd., where high-quality khat could be purchased. The informant also provided officers with the name of a woman supposedly in charge of selling it. The door came crashing in at 8:50 p.m. - a sound that brought Mohamoud to his feet. "Police! Police! Get on the ground!" yelled an officer in street clothes. Eight people were in the house. Two were daughters of the couple who lived in the home. The rest, Mohamoud included, were visitors. The owners were out at a show. Mohamoud says he stepped over one of his friends, who was already on the floor, and then decided to hit the ground himself. He says he was belly down, with his hands already behind his head, when an officer kicked him in the head. He recalls being kicked in the head a second time and believes he then went unconscious. When he came to, his hands were cuffed behind his back. He says officers used a telephone cord to bind his ankles together and attached the cord to his handcuffs. Three civilian witnesses also told police Mohamoud had been tied with a cord. The officers denied they hog-tied Mohamoud. The notes of two of the officers state that two sets of handcuffs were used to bind both Mohamoud's wrists and ankles. Mohamoud says he could barely breathe and pleaded repeatedly for help. According to Mohamoud, a bald officer with a cigar in his mouth told him to shut up, and said: "F-----g Somalians, why don't you do something with your lives?'' "Then he came over, and that's when he stepped on me." At that point, Mohamoud says, he heard his right arm crack. Ali Hidig tells a similar version of what happened to his friend Mohamoud. Hidig was handcuffed next to him on the floor. "He was crying and saying stuff to me," Hidig said in an interview. "He wasn't resisting anything. They were very rough people. I can't believe that they were police." Hidig, 38, says Mohamoud pleaded with officers to leave him alone and told them he was injured. Hidig says officers used foul language and made racial comments. He says he saw an officer kick Mohamoud in the head and that he, too, was kicked in the head by police but did not file a complaint. Hidig says police covered his eyes with something at one point. After that, he could only hear what was going on around him. In an interview with police complaint investigator Detective Christine Long, Hidig said an officer told him later that night to "keep your mouth shut" about what had happened. The sisters, now 15 and 21, who lived in the home also saw much of what happened that night. Mohamoud's relationship with them and their family was so close, the sisters refer to him to this day as "uncle." Both say the officers stormed in with guns drawn. They recall being ordered to the ground and seeing Mohamoud looking for space on the floor when two to three officers took him down. "Get down on the f-----g ground," the younger sister remembers hearing. They both say Mohamoud did not resist the officers and that he was unconscious for some time. They say officers used a telephone cord they had yanked out of the wall to tie his wrists to his feet. They did not see any officers kick him. The older sister, according to the final complaint report, told investigator Long that she came home about 5:30 p.m. and the visitors were already there and chewing khat. She told Long she didn't know where it came from. It was a tradition, she said. The sister told Long, and The Star, that she was ordered to lie on the floor near Mohamoud. "I told one of the officers, 'He can't breathe. Can you loosen one of the wires on him?' " The answer, she said, was no. She said the officer told her to "shut the f--- up," or she too would be tied up like Mohamoud. The older sister also said Mohamoud was ordered later to touch his nose, and couldn't. She said one officer then said, "It's definitely broken, . . . it's f----n' broken." Police left the house at about 10:30 p.m. Inside, the place was a mess, say the two sisters. They say the officers left a pager number and told them they should call it when their parents came home. Later that night, they say they called the number repeatedly. No one called back, they say. The police version of events comes from notes the officers made after the takedown. According to the notes of Detective John Schertzer, the officer in charge of the raid, he saw a male attempting to escape just moments after the officers stormed into the home. Schertzer notes that two other officers, Detective Constables Richard Benoit and Chris Higgins, began struggling with the man, whom they would later identify as Mohamoud. He was "violently fighting, . . . kicking and punching," Schertzer wrote in his memo book. Mohamoud, according to Benoit's notes, was "frantic to escape" and tried to push a wall unit on him. Mohamoud "became stronger and more violent," wrote Benoit, as he and Higgins struggled to subdue him. Both officers noted that Mohamoud was spitting out what they believed to be khat. Higgins also noted that when he first saw Mohamoud, there was a bundle of khat in his hand. According to Benoit's notes, Mohamoud calmed down after he had been restrained and offered this apology: "I'm so sorry for what I have done. It's not like me at all. I'm sorry for fighting with you." Mohamoud says he gave no such apology. In an interview with police complaint investigator Long, Mohamoud said: "I am not an idiot. . . . When I heard them say 'Police,' I hit the ground. I did not raise an arm to police. The only word(s) I used was 'Please. My arm was broken. I am not going anywhere. Please, I am in pain.' I stand 100 per cent on that." The officers took their time searching the home. According to a report filed by Constable Sean McGuinness, who was in charge of exhibits, seven bundles of khat, as well as some baggies containing more dried leaves, were seized. Over an hour after the raid began, Mohamoud was still on his belly and in excruciating pain. He was still restrained. An officer Mohamoud thought to be the one in charge took a look at him and ordered the restraints removed. "And they tell me to touch my nose. I'm saying, 'I can't, I can't.' " Mohamoud says an officer told him he was sorry. Mohamoud says he stayed silent. "There was just tears in my eyes. I just look at him.'' The takedown was over within five minutes of the door being bashed in, which, according to police notes, happened at 8:50 p.m. The notes state Mohamoud complained of an injured arm but was not taken to hospital until 10:07 p.m. Hospital records indicate severe swelling and bruising to the left elbow and a fracture of the right elbow. The right arm was placed in a cast. The left arm was so badly injured, Mohamoud had to use a sling to keep it immobile. The woman police said they were looking for that night was the wife of the man Mohamoud had gone to the house to visit. She was never charged. In fact, no one but Mohamoud was charged. Schertzer, the officer in charge of the raid, was slapped with several internal Police Services Act charges Sept. 5. They relate to alleged procedural gaffes surrounding the raid. The charges, however, have nothing to do with the allegations made in Mohamoud's complaint. The 25-year veteran, who was recently promoted to staff sergeant, and Constable Sean McGuinness were among the eight officers charged last week in the informant money investigation. They are to appear in court in January. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens