Ottawa stabbing trial: Will Mohamed Osman face murder conviction over mall brawl?

Article content

A jury is now tasked with deliberating whether or not Mohamed Osman is guilty of second-degree murder, manslaughter or aggravated assault, in a Sept. 16, 2022, melee inside the St. Laurent Shopping Centre that left one man dead and two wounded.

Osman, now 20, was 18 at the time of the brawl, and pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault at the start of his jury trial last week, though he admitted to stabbing Marcus Maloney, 18, and two of his friends. Maloney died from his injuries.

Article content

Superior Court Justice Hugh McLean instructed the jury Monday to consider if Osman was acting in self defence, if he was provoked and if he acted reasonably during the brawl between two groups of young men.

Osman, the Crown told the jury during closing arguments, was the catalyst for the mayhem that ensued between the two groups.

“He brought a knife to a fistfight and inflicted tremendous harm to unarmed men, whose knives never left their pockets, even after Osman started stabbing people,” Crown attorney John Semenoff told the jury.

During closing arguments, Semenoff argued Osman was the one who escalated the fight when he ran into a Dollarama, stole a kitchen knife, concealed it on his hip, ducked past a security guard and ran back into the mall, where he almost instantly began stabbing Maloney, “plunging” the knife “to its full depths” into Maloney’s chest, close to his neck.

Maloney and his friends, Jacob Grant-Dallaire and Denis Plumb, had gone to the St. Laurent mall “to stick up for a friend and co-worker” who had been harassed by a group of teenagers on a city bus the previous day.

Article content

Article content

Osman, meanwhile, was at the mall with a friend, and said the two weren’t looking for a fight. Maloney and his friends recognized Osman’s friend as one of the teens from an altercation on the bus the previous day.

Aside from fatally stabbing Maloney, Osman is also accused of stabbing and wounding Grant-Dallaire and Plumb and was the “aggressor” in the altercation, the Crown argued.

“None of them knew Mohamed Osman. None of them threatened Mohamed Osman. None of them threatened Mohamed Osman or chased him as he went into the Dollarama. None of them even cared about him, he had nothing to do with the day before.”

Osman had testified he grabbed the knife from the store in an attempt to scare away the men who were fighting his friend, but the Crown characterized his actions with the knife as “grossly disproportionate” in the context of the fight, noting Maloney hadn’t hit or kicked anyone, and Osman’s friend ultimately walked away from the fight uninjured.

“He takes Maloney by surprise, inflicts deadly violence and doesn’t give him the courtesy of a fair fight,” Semenoff said.

Article content

Osman’s lawyer, Ewan Lyttle, argued Osman was acting in self-defence, as he believed his friend was being beaten up by six “bigger, older, stronger” men.

“On Sept. 16, 2022, Mr Osman woke up and packed his bags with books, not knives,” Lyttle told the jury. “He went to school having no clue he’d later have to watch and hear a pack of men beating on his friend. Mr. Osman was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He didn’t want it to happen, didn’t plan for it to happen, and he’s remorseful.”

Lyttle said self defence allowed for the prevention of harm, meaning death or injury did not have to occur before a person defended themselves.

“At no time did Osman use a weapon against anybody that didn’t pose a threat,” Lyttle said.

He added Osman had intended to stab Maloney in the shoulder, which the 20-year-old described as “not an important area.”

Osman’s instincts during the melee were correct, Lyttle argued.

“He believed men would attack his friend. He was right. He believed he and Nasir were badly outnumbered. He was right. He believed the men wanted to hurt (his friend). He was right. He believed men wanted to target his head. He was right. He believed men could be armed with knives. He was right. He believed a security guard couldn’t help. He was right. He believed more than one man would hit him at the same time. And he was right.”

The jury continued to deliberate on Tuesday.

— With files from Aedan Helmer

Article content