911 prank leads to police raid in Little Mogadishu

A Somali Canadian man is upset after a 911 call he says he didn’t make led to a police raid at his home in an area of Toronto known as Little Mogadishu.

Faysal Abdiwali, 25, said he was playing football with some college friends Monday evening and put his cellphone on the grass for a while.

Later, someone in the park apparently used his phone to call 911, reporting shots had been fired.

“Phone call was an accident or a prank call. Must have been some big joke that I did not take part of, and all I wanted to do was figure out what happened,” Abdiwali told CBC News.

Abdiwali said neither he nor his friends or family made the call, but police traced the phone to his apartment building at 320 Dixon Road near Kipling Avenue.

Officers arrive

Three officers showed up at Abdiwali’s door minutes before he and his family were to eat their dinner after ending the daily fast they observe during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Minutes later, another dozen officers showed up and barged into the apartment, Abdiwali said.

“One of the other officer came, grabbed my throat, threw me against my own table and my wall,” Abdiwali said. “I kind of banged my knee in, and then the other one came back into my face, gave me a headlock, started squeezing my neck. Like, until today, I still have a stiff neck.”

Abdiwali’s older brother Ahmed, who works for the provincial government, and his cousin were also home.

“I was yelling towards the sergeant, saying ‘Sergeant please calm the situation down,’ and that’s when one of the officers grabbed me and flung me on the flung and I got up. I went towards the wall and that’s when I turned my camera on,” said Mohamed Firin.

“Put the camera away,” a female officer can be heard saying on the video.

Family frightened

Ahmed Abdiwali said he too was pinned down by police. He said no one in his family had ever been in trouble with the law and that the aggressive officers left them all frightened.

“They first said they were coming in for emergency aid, for emergency help. They thought my brother was hurt,” he said. ” We showed them everything. And that turned into an assault. Like I heard racial slurs.”

Neighbours in the hallway said they, too, were thrown to the floor or against the wall during the raid.

“When police respond to a 911 call, particularly when sounds of gunshots or shots [are] fired — we do respond in numbers because we take these things very seriously,” said Ron Tavener, superintendent of 23 Division, whose officers executed the raid.

“We have to look at community safety, officer safety.”

Tavener said police have been trying have a better relationship with members of the Somali community, and an incident like this doesn’t help.

Community members said they understand police have a job to do but that police used excessive force in the Monday incident. They said they will hold a rally in the area Friday afternoon to demand police treat them with more respect.

CBC