Murder victim was failed by police years before murder, advocate and officer say
Officer says force needs to be called out; another says it's impossible to know if charges would have helped
On March 7, 2012, Hanadi Mohammed and Hamid Ayoub's children told Ottawa police they woke up to a loud slap.
This was nine years before Ayoub murdered Mohammed and nearly murdered their 22-year-old daughter in front of the home they had moved into to escape him.
A jury found Ayoub guilty in October of first-degree murder and attempted murder in that attack.
After hearing the noise, the children went to their parents' room where Ayoub told them nothing had happened. After they left, they heard another slap.
"Both children entered the room and observed Mohammed screaming for help," reads the report typed up by Const. Godfrey Nip later that night. Dispatched to the home with Nip was then constable Sameer Sharma, now a staff sergeant.
Their reports and notes were filed in court by the Crown ahead of Ayoub's trial. The judge ruled the evidence admissible, but the jury never heard the details.
Threatened to kill her, Mohammed alleged
When the officers arrived Nip heard Mohammed scream, "He hit me! He hit me!"
According to the police report, after Mohammed fell asleep she felt a slap or punch to the front of her face and a hand grab her face or neck and squeeze.
She sat up. Ayoub pushed her back on the bed and started taking off his belt, Nip's notes read. She opened a window and screamed, "I need help! I need help!" Then Ayoub allegedly closed the bedroom door and said, "I'm going to kill you today."
After the children re-entered the bedroom, the doorbell rang.
"Nobody opens the door. I'm the man of the house and I open the door," Ayoub allegedly said. The doorbell rang again and their daughter let the officers in.
Officer noted victim's 'skin very dark'
Ayoub was calm and compliant. He told the officers there had been a verbal altercation and that Mohammed started screaming for help, the reports read.
Mohammed said she had pain on her left cheek and a sore neck, but the officers and paramedics didn't see marks or swelling.
Nip's handwritten notes state: "No fresh marks seen however vics [victim's] skin very dark."
Ayoub said he was 6-feet-4-inches tall and 240 pounds, "and if I hit her, you would see something," according to Sharma's report.
"After further speaking with the children, they conceded that the 'slapping' sound could have been feet stomping or even their mother slamming something on the dresser," Nip's report states.
No arrest 'appeared to enrage her'
The officers decided not to charge Ayoub.
"Mohammed was advised that police would not be arresting Ayoub due to lack of physical evidence, which appeared to enrage her, and caused her to begin ordering police to arrest him, because she was making assault allegations," Nip wrote.
The officers left after Ayoub agreed to sleep elsewhere that night, and the file was closed. Neither version of events was ever tested in court.
Aline Gahimbare, a violence against women program co-ordinator at the Eastern Ottawa Resource Centre, has been reviewing Ottawa police domestic case files since 2017.
After examining the reports filed by the officers, Gahimbare said she was "shocked." They shouldn't have relied on finding marks on her black skin, which often can't be seen; their reports suggest her anger might have weighed against her; and they didn't ask about any prior history of abuse, Gahimbare said.
They also appear not to have recognized the significance of a vulnerable, immigrant Muslim woman with few supports choosing to defy her husband.
"They gave the power to Ayoub. She was not protected by the system," Gahimbare said.
'No one held accountable' at OPS
The history of police involvement with the family in the years leading up to the murder doesn't sit well with some officers. One of them spoke to CBC News on the condition that they not be named because they fear repercussions for speaking out of turn.
"The service failed her. That's a fact," the officer said. "The service has to be called out."
A year after the 2012 call for help, police were called again after Ayoub held a knife during a confrontation with Mohammed in their kitchen.
A detective told Mohammed charges were mandatory, but the officer did not end up pursuing the case further. The detective doesn't know why, because she didn't write her reasons down at the time, she testified during the murder trial.
WATCH | In 2013, Det. Erin McMullan explains why she has to charge Ayoub
Less than a month before the murder, in May 2021, there was another 911 call about Ayoub. Mohammed told police he'd confronted her in a parking lot near her home.
Again, no charges were laid. Officers found there was no evidence an offence had been committed.
Years earlier, in 2007 and 2009, Mohammed and her children sought refuge in shelters to get away from Ayoub, according to reports written by other officers.
"This woman came how many times seeking help, and didn't get that help. And the reality is that all three officers [involved in the 2012 and 2013 calls] were promoted and moved on, with no one held accountable," said the officer who asked not to be identified.
Police service declines comment
CBC is unable to find out whether any action was taken with the officers involved.
The force declined to answer questions about its history with the family because Ayoub has filed notice with Ontario's highest court to appeal his conviction and sentence.
According to homicide Det. Chris Benson, the murder's lead investigator, it's unfair to speculate about whether it could have been prevented if charges had been laid years earlier.
Someone charged with domestic violence could become angrier and retaliate, while someone else might change their ways, he said.
The force has also instituted changes in its response to intimate partner violence in the years since, including case review and safety planning.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
