The prime suspect in the death of a 19-year-old man who was shot dead Dec. 2 while trying to assist an older man who was being harassed has been arrested in Haldimand County.
Yosif Al-Hasnawi had just left his mosque in the area of Main Street East and Wentworth Street South Saturday night when he spotted two men accosting another man.
Al-Hasnawi tried to intervene and was subsequently shot by one of the men, police said previously.
The teen was rushed to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
On Monday, 20-year-old James Anthony Robert Matheson was arrested and charged with accessory after the fact to murder in relation to Al-Hasnawi’s death.
On Wednesday, police released updated images taken by a surveillance camera indicating the main suspect in the homicide, 19-year-old Dale Burningsky King, had cut his long hair short in an attempt to evade arrest.
Sometime in the last 24 hours, Det. Sgt. Steve Bereziuk said police became aware that King was hiding somewhere in Hagersville, Ont., southeast of Six Nations.
At 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Hamilton officers including emeregency response unit officer, along with the OPP, arrested King at a home on King Street West in Hagersville.
Bereziuk said police obtained a warrant to search a home in Hagersville and when they approached he ultimately surrendered without incident.
Police said he will be charged with second-degree murder. He is expected to appear in court in Hamilton on Friday morning.
Bereziuk said a third person, the 55-year-old female owner of the home where King was found, was arrested and has not yet been charged.
“We are looking into her involvement and she is not formally charged at this point,” Bereziuk said, adding she is related to King.
The firearm used in the homicide, believed to be a handgun, has not yet been recovered. Police searched at least two addresses in east Hamilton earlier this week in an attempt to find the gun but were not successful.
Bereziuk told reporters Friday that they have still not yet located the older man who was being accosted on Saturday night, prompting Yosif Al-Hasnawi to intervene.
The victim’s father, Majed Al-Hasnawi, told CTV News Toronto on Monday that his son was a “good boy” who always stuck up for others.
“He was a great boy. He was very religious. Sometimes I’d wake up at night and find him praying. He believed in peace,” Majed Al-Hasnawi said.
Majed said the night he died, his son had been reading a few pages of the Quran publicly at their mosque as part of celebrations marking the birth of the prophet Mohammed.
Al-Hasnawi was a first-year medical science student at Brock University who had dreams of becoming a doctor one day. His father recently got him a yellow Volvo to drive to school, but he never got to drive it.
The school released a statement Sunday expressing shock at his death.
