September 7, 2008 (Edmonton, AB, Canada NSV) - The Sudanese Community in Calgary is grappling with the tragic death of a couple who died Friday after an alleged domestic fight where a man fatally
stabbed his wife to death before police killed him shortly after arriving at the residence.
“Everyone here is in shock. I am telling you, everybody is in shock. People traveled from all over, from British Columbia, from Edmonton, from the US from wherever to come just because they didn't believe what is going on. Like, that is not the reality of this couple,” said a family friend, Edward Jenaro Majok who lives in Calgary.
Police account say the man told them he had allegedly killed his wife. When they arrived at his apartment they said they found him soaked in blood and wielding a knife. Police say he threatened the two officers who got to the scene with a knife. Police tried to persuade him to drop the knife and he refused, they said, before one of them shot him three times with live bullets, killing him.
"The guy had no intention of surrendering," said John Dooks, president of the Calgary Police Association. "I am confident the officers acted appropriately and that lethal use of force was necessary," he told reporters.
Calgary police Chief Rick Hanson said his men acted timely and professionally. "The officers made the decision based on the fact that their lives were at risk," he said. "No police officer wants to be in a situation like this. It's traumatic to the community and a tragedy for our officers to deal with as well."
The police’s actions have revived bitter memories of a controversial death of Deng Fermino Kuol, a Sudanese immigrant, who died in similar circumstances in 2003 and generate more questions than answers.
“If somebody is carrying a knife and they are not at a distance where they can hurt you. Why shoot him three times? Why don’t you shoot him to disable? Why is it that the Calgary police has to shoot-to-kill all the time, particularly when the case is a Sudanese?” asks Peter Both, outgoing Government of South Sudan Representative to Canada who also represents SPLM in Canada.
In the case of Deng, police were called in to remove him from a residence. By the time an officer arrived, he was already outside the building. The officer shot him twice, saying Deng had attacked him with a knife. Then, the case caused an outrage in the local Sudanese community of Calgary who held a series of demonstrations against the police shoot-to-kill policy. Both says the new chief of police in Calgary acted “appropriately” by calling an independent investigation into the death.
At the time of Deng’s death, the colleagues of the shooter investigated him which made it difficult to ensure impartiality, Both notes.
“I hope this would be the last one. That, when somebody is carrying a knife, the police shouldn’t just shoot people to kill. They should disable them so that they are not able to hurt someone else. Why shoot someone three times just because they are holding a knife. It’s something that I cannot understand.”
Friends of the man, identified to be Welid Mohammed Rehan say they are still trying to comprehend what had just happened. Several people NSV interviewed speak of a “gentleman.” They say whatever issues the couple dealt with were just normal misunderstandings between a husband and a wife. However, they say the two were separated for nearly a month before getting back on the same roof. “It took a while [for them to get together] but it wasn’t a violent relationship,” said Majok, who added that he had never witnessed anything bad about Saba, Welid’s wife.
The couple moved to Canada around six years ago from Egypt. They first landed in Vancouver where they lived temporarily before moving to Alberta. Prior to the couple relocating to Calgary, Welid had left Saba for eight months, when she then joined her husband.
During her last days, some unconfirmed reports indicate Saba might have considered divorcing Welid. Nobody of all our sources could speak with certainty about what and how this occurred. Police are yet to release an autopsy showing how the victims died. But friends of Welid would not stop lavishing praise, not at his actions but his character.
“This man, of all people, was a very good man. I know him very well from the community here. He is not a kind of man who will try to get aggressive easily. But things happen, right?” said Felix Dumo, deputy SPLM communication and technology officer.
The news has already hit the Sudanese bloggersphere. One blogger expressed her condolence to the families of the two victims. “I am very much saddened by this tragic news to the Sudanese Community, especially the families of this couple. I pray that God will grant them peace and forgiveness.”
Welid was originally from Fertit in Western Bhar El Ghazal in Southern Sudan while his wife, Saba hailed from the Nuba Mountains.