Officer on scene where Yosif Al-Hasnawi was shot told father, 'He's going to be OK'
Christine Rankin | CBC News | Posted: November 26, 2020 1:37 PM | Last Updated: November 27, 2020
There was blood on the teen's waistband, fingertips and shoes, says police officer
The first officer on the scene the night Yosif Al-Hasnawi was shot and died remembers telling the teen's father, "Talk to your son. He's going to be OK."
Const. Michael Zezella with the Hamilton Police Service gave his testimony in court on Thursday for the trial of two former Hamilton paramedics — Steven Snively, 55, and Christopher Marchant, 32 — who are charged with failing to provide the necessities of life.
Part of his testimony included him remembering blood spots on the 19-year-old's fingertips and his father running down Sanford Avenue in a panic.
Zezella got the call for possible shots fired on the night of Dec. 2, 2017. Black and white footage was played in the courtroom, which showed a police cruiser pulling up to a small group near Main and Sanford with its lights flashing.
Zezella said he remembers seeing Al-Hasnawi lying down on the sidewalk. After talking to the bystanders, the officer said he radioed in that a male was down, a "BB gun possibly" and that there were minor injuries, superficial to the abdomen.
He told the courtroom that someone in the group also said they heard a loud bang, and that it was possibly a firework or gun shot.
But Al-Hasnawi had been shot with a .22-calibre gun, and the bullet pierced an artery and vein.
He died that night.
Blood drops on white shoes
Zezella described Al-Hasnawi's wound, and said there was a small amount of blood in it.
There were drops of blood on the waistband of his pants, on his fingertips, and on Al-Hasnawi's white shoes, he said.
Post-mortem photos of the teen's wound were showed to the court. Zezella said it looked similar, but these photos showed more blood near where the skin broke.
The officer didn't physically assess the wound and had no way to assess its depth.
Al-Hasnawi also had a scratch on the right side of his face, Zezella said, and he was conscious and breathing.
Paramedics arrive
He said he felt Al-Hasnawi's stomach to see if there was any internal bleeding. If there was, Zezella thought the stomach would have been harder, though he doesn't have any medical training.
Al-Hasnawi didn't move or make any sounds when he touched him, Zezella said. He was put in the recovery position, but would roll out. One time he touched the officer's leg with "minimal" force.
He called in a description of the suspects, and a police perimeter was put in force around 9 p.m.
When the paramedics arrived, Zezella said he passed the information he had gathered from bystanders to Marchant.
Marchant put on gloves, he said, and ran his finger over the wound. When Crown attorney Scott Patterson asked if the paramedic checked for vital signs, or looked at Al-Hasnawi's face, Zezella said he couldn't remember.
'Talk to your son, he's going to be OK'
When Al-Hasnawi's father came running, Zezella said he had asked him, "does he typically act this way?" since the teen wasn't answering questions. He said the dad either said, "no" or "I don't know."
Zezella told the courtroom he said to the father, "Talk to your son, he's going to be OK."
The officer said he "definitely" told Al-Hasnawi he was going to be all right, too.
The teen couldn't sit up
Zezella and Marchant each grabbed one of Al-Hasnawi's hands and tried to help him sit up. When they couldn't do it, another person at the scene stepped in, Zezella said, and pulled him off the ground.
At some point he got onto the stretcher, which is where Zezella last saw him.
The officer turned to the crowd, which would "close in" from time-to-time, and tried to create a buffer between them and the paramedics. They were cooperative, he said.
Patterson asked if he heard anyone laughing or making comments about acting, faking or that Al-Hasnawi could win an Oscar for his performance.
Zezella said, "No."
Witness said gun was very small, silver
Mark Stevens, who was a Hamilton Fire Department captain on the night Al-Hasnawi was shot, said on Wednesday that he overheard a police officer say, of Al-Hasnawi, "He's been shot with a BB gun, and he's acting like it's an AK-47."
Patterson asked if Zezella made the remark. To this, he also said no.
When asked if the officers were taking things seriously, Zezella said they were. Both defence lawyers, including Michael DelGobbo of St. Catharines, who represents Snively, asked if he thought the paramedics were taking it seriously as well.
"From the interactions I had? Yes," he said.
Zezella also took a witness statement from Mustafa Ameer, who was one of the people on the scene.
When asked to describe the gun he saw, Ameer said he didn't see it too clearly, but it was really small, silver, and he heard one loud bang.
The court has heard that the two paramedics thought Al-Hasnawi had been shot with a BB gun, and took 23 minutes to transport him to St. Joseph's Hospital. He was pronounced dead not long after they arrived.
Officer doesn't remember firefighters there
Stevens, a retired firefighter, also briefly took the stand on Thursday morning and continued his testimony from Wednesday.
He said he didn't get to do a head-to-toe assessment of Al-Hasnawi and was trying to obey the police officer's gesture to stay back. He said he didn't see the paramedics do this kind of assessment either.
Zezella was asked if he gestured to the firefighters to stop, and he said no. He also didn't remember them being there at all. When Patterson asked why the firefighters didn't treat Al-Hasnawi's wounds, Zezella replied, "I have no idea."
During the defence's cross-examination of Stevens, Manishen asked if he heard the paramedics making negative comments similar to ones he testified that he heard from the officer. Stevens said he didn't. He also said he thought the paramedics were taking things seriously.
When he asked Zezella if he thought Al-Hasnawi was acting or faking, he said no. Manishen also suggested that the closest Zezella came to using the word "acting" on scene was in asking the father why the teen was "acting like that."
The officer said that was correct.
On Wednesday, workers at the ambulance dispatch centre that night also said that they were understaffed, and that there was no supervisor on duty. They also had information that Al-Hasnawi had been shot with a BB gun, but the call was still classified as a Code 4, which is the most urgent.
Const. Christopher Campovari was the other officer on scene, and he testified on Tuesday.
The judge-only trial is in Hamilton superior court before Justice Harrison Arrell. This is the third day of a trial that's estimated to take about five weeks.
Al-Hasnawi's father is expected to take the stand on Monday.