Whoops! More Worthy Citizens...

Mohamed Nasrallah, while admitting he was behind the wheel of his father's uninsured Honda Civic in 2009, utterly rejects criminal negligence in Mike Armstrong's brush with death while attempting to apprehend him and his partners in crime.  Mr. Armstrong had been knocked to the pavement, when he caught up to the uninsured vehicle being driven by 24-year-old Mohamed Nasrallah.  Where he and his friend, Akmal Nowabe, were busy trying to drive off from the Bells Corner gas bar.

Two of the three involved had been served by Mr. Armstrong, paying for their purchases of cigarettes and other negligible items by debit card.  They would swipe the card, but enter the wrong account.  While the transaction was processing to failure they fled.  This was not the only gas bar they stole from.  In little over a week, this was the third time the three young men had entertained themselves by theft.  The second time in three days they had chosen Peter's Gas Bar, where Mr. Armstrong worked.

Mr. Armstrong is now dead.  Of natural causes, it was reported.  Just before his death he recorded his version of events for Ottawa police officers.  And that version was played back for the jury to consider during Mr. Nasrallah's trial where he has pleaded not guilty to criminal negligence causing bodily harm and failing to stop at the scene of an accident.

"I ran after them, which I shouldn't have done, and I guess I fell from the car.  My head must've hit the back twice, like bounced once or twice", Mr. Armstrong testified in the police recording from his hospital bed.  A video also played for the jury showed Mr. Armstrong at the getaway car beside the driver's side window, as it accelerated out of the lot, leaving the man to topple to the ground.

Nasrallah's two friends would enter a store, choose items, ask for cigarettes.  Using Nasrallah's debit card, they swiped it, entering the wrong account number, then they fled to the car driven by Nasrallah while the transaction was being processed.  Each time this happened, clerks would run after the men.  It was only Mr. Armstrong who had actually caught up with them.  And he described them as 'kids'.

Funny thing, that. Those who feel uncomfortable about seeing it being pointed out that young men of the Muslim community in Ottawa appear to be over-represented in police files, like to make excuses for them.  There are always extenuating circumstances to be cited; their callow youth, their confusion, their dispiritedness born of being different, their confusion due to conflicting traditions, their underprivileged backgrounds.  Take your pick.

These are not 'kids'.  These are young, and often not-all-that-young adults.  Conflicted they may be, but each of us is imbued with free choice and some measure of intelligence and common sense.  We have them as attributes to be used.  Those who spurn them, when they spurn societal values and the criminal code, have chosen rather unwisely.  And, as it happens, a disproportionate number of young Muslim men appear to choose unwisely.

And just coincidentally, Eriklit Musollari, 22, has turned himself in.  He is facing a second-degree murder charge, suspected of having shot to death Peyman Hatami, 31.  Mr. Hatami was a debt enforcer for convicted killer and drug dealer Wahab Dadshani.  Mr. Musollari has no previous convictions.

His lawyer has stated "He learned that there was a warrant and he's doing the right thing".  He had no idea that there was a search out for him as the killer of yet another thug?  So he's 'doing the right thing', by turning himself in?  Perhaps his testimony will lead to the establishment of the identity of the real killer?

The ? must be asked: where do these 'kids' take their inspiration from?