'I owe him my life': Father hit by bullets in shootout while protecting kids in Montreal's West Island

One of the men caught in the crossfire between police and a gun-toting suspect in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Que., on Sunday took five bullets to protect his son and daughter from gunfire, his family says.

When the bullets started flying on a residential street near the corner of de Salaberry Boulevard and Davignon Street in Montreal's West Island just after 8 p.m., Houssam Abdallah, 52, positioned himself in front of the rounds.

The Abdallah family had just returned from a camping trip and were unloading their car when the suspect, now identified as 26-year-old Nackeal Hickey, ran up to them swinging a handgun and demanded the keys to their vehicle. 

A gunfight began almost immediately, according to three members of the Abdallah family who witnessed the shooting. Police officers who were pursuing Hickey arrived — and the suspect turned and fired on them. 

"I told my father and brother to run," said Abdallah's daughter Jana , who was outside when the shooting started. "We tried to get away and the shots came from all sides. I can't even tell you who was shooting at who. It was chaos."

Between the suspect and the police, as many as 40 shots may have been fired, witnesses and Radio-Canada sources said. 

"We didn't even have time to respond," Abdel-Rahman Abdallah, 18, said in an interview. "[The suspect] saw the police and he started shooting. The police fired back."

A bullet struck Abdel-Rahman in the back, two centimetres from his spine, he said. He carried a cane on Wednesday, but fortunately, the bullet lodged itself in his flesh and didn't hit his internal organs. 

After he was struck, Abdel-Rahman saw his father covered in blood, bleeding profusely from multiple wounds. 

It was all a blur, he said, but he learned later, in the hospital, that his father had stepped in front of the rounds, protecting his family. 

Both he and his sister said they owed him their lives.

'My father is my hero'

"I saw my father fall. He was lying on the ground, bleeding. I was in the middle of them while I heard dozens of shots ring out everywhere. I escaped unharmed, without a single bullet," Jana said.

"It was a huge thing he did for me. I'm so grateful. My father is my hero. Without him, I might not be alive."

Doctors discharged Abdel-Rahman from the hospital on Tuesday, but he said he visited his father before leaving. "I owe him my life," said Abdel-Rahman.

His father has a long road to recovery ahead of him, with multiple surgeries needed, but Sirin El Jundi, Abdel-Rahman's mother, said her husband was able to speak even if he is still badly hurt. 

The family is in shock, they all said, and they wondered why it took so long for paramedics to arrive and begin to care for their injured father. He lay on the ground for an hour before help arrived, even though the police were there. 

Prosecutors filed 15 criminal charges against Hickey, including four counts of attempted murder, illegal possession of a firearm, robbery and breaching bail conditions.

Hickey was arrested in July in a separate case and charged with breaking and entering. He was out on bail on Sunday when the police say he fired on officers and sparked the gunfight.

He had agreed to pay a $500 surety and possess no weapons to secure his bail in the breaking and entering case.

Hickey was absent from the courtroom on Wednesday. He remains in hospital.