Criminally Challenged, Academically Inclined

"[He's] not a perfect kid, I don't know if there is such a thing."
"That [Somalian descent] gives people the notion that this is a troublemaker who just came from a war-torn country. He was Canadian."
"Here, anyone is an associate [of a gang]. He is a victim."
Abdul Hassan, uncle of Sharif Said, 21, deceased

Sharif Said, 21, was gunned down on Tremblay Road on the weekend. His family insists he was not involved with gangs.

A victim he most certainly was. And likely a gang member as well, despite the denials of Sharif Said's family. He was born in Canada of immigrant Somali parents. And there is another fact as well, that Somali youth are disproportionately involved in crime, drugs, violence and death in the nation's capital. They may have been born in Canada, but there appears to be a propensity among young Somali males toward gangs, guns, drugs and violence.

All of the above appear to have been involved in some measure to conclude Sharif Said's life at a tragically early age. There can be little doubt that his family is in deep mourning. The oldest of their six children; five boys and a girl, is now dead. And it was not the troubling exposure to crime he might have encountered at an Ottawa high school that might have corrupted his values, since he attended the Ottawa Islamic School.

And there he excelled academically, earning an "improved conflict resolution" award, and distinguishing himself at a regional spelling bee -- receiving acceptance letters from Carleton University and the University of Ottawa because of his "impressive academic record" earning him as well an Ontario Scholar status, as well as a university scholarship.

Police believe the young man's death was related to both gangs and drugs. He had, in fact, a criminal record, pleading guilty to obstructing a police officer, sentenced to 14 days in jail in 2014. Months earlier he faced a charge for drug possession. And a year before that, at age 19, he was charged with assault causing bodily harm, assault, assault (with a knife) to commit a robbery and breaching conditions.

Said's mother had informed the court that sentenced him to a nine-month conditional sentence in June 2013 that she and her husband were shocked by the charges, representing a "completely out of character" violent act by her son; quite inexplicable. When he attended University of Ottawa in the 2011-12 academic year he "failed his courses in second semester as he became more involved with a new, negative peer group and criminal behaviours", state court documents.

The investigation into the young man's murder continues. When his body is released to the family, with the autopsy completed, his funeral, in accord with Islamic tradition, will be conducted and the young man buried as soon as possible.