The younger brother of shooting victim Yosif Al-Hasnawi returns to the witness stand Tuesday in the trial of two Hamilton paramedics accused of failing to provide the necessities of life.
Ahmed Al-Hasnawi will be cross-examined by defence lawyers on Day 10 of the trial following his testimony on Monday that recalled the night of Dec. 2, 2017, when Dale King shot Al-Hasnawi’s brother near a strip mall in Central Hamilton.
On Monday, Al-Hasnawi watched video he had never seen before that showed his frantic dash into a convenience store to ask a clerk to call 911.
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In the footage, the then 13-year-old could be seen banging his hands on a counter telling a store clerk and witness Steve Ryan what had happened.
The young Al-Hasnawi then recalled running back to his ailing brother laying on a sidewalk on Sanford Avenue south and main Street East just as police and paramedics arrived on the scene around 9 p.m.
Al-Hasnawi told a court he was with his brother and a friend when Yosif called out two men he saw verbally harassing an older man. In response, the two men crossed to the northside of Main Street East and headed toward Yosif and got “within talking distance.”
Ahmed said he saw King, who had his hair in a ponytail, attempting to hide a “small silvery gun” behind his leg when the three talked before one of the men turned and punched Yosif in the side of the head.
“He just staggered back, and then those guys started running, and my brother started chasing them,” Ahmed Al-Hasnawi told crown attorney Scott Patterson.
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Al-Hasnawi then told the court that his brother caught up with King and the other man near Sanford and Main Street East and was confronted again.
“When he got close to the bald guy, he sort of tried to grab his hoodie,” Ahmed said. “And that’s when the ponytail guy turned around and shot my brother.”
After alerting Ryan and the store clerk, Al-Hasnawi said police and paramedics arrived at the scene minutes later.
Al-Hasnawi says he recalled a police officer and the two paramedics treating his brother at the scene and told the court that one of them said, “this guy should win an Oscar and laughed.”
He went on to say the paramedics were “squeezing around the hole” which was his brother’s gun-shot wound and that his hand was “kicked his hand away” when he reached out and grabbed the police officer’s foot while in pain and telling the men he couldn’t breathe.
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Eventually, the paramedics picked him up, “grabbed him by the hoodie” and “threw” him on a nearby stretcher, Ahmed told the court.
Al Hasnawi will return to the stand at 10 a.m for further cross-examination from the defence.
Also expected to take the stand on Tuesday will be Hal Klassen, who was the deputy chief of operations for Hamilton paramedics in 2017. Klassen is expected to provide a demonstration of how paramedics in the field respond to a call.
The judge-only trial is expected to last four- to five-weeks with Justice Harrison Arrell expected to hear testimony from numerous witnesses, among them Al-Hasnawi’s friends and family, and bystanders who witnessed the teenager’s final moments.