Police anticipated Falconridge riot, judge hears as trial for 5 men begins
Violent conflict in September 2023 between 2 Eritrean groups in northeast Calgary
Calgary police struggled to control the violence and destruction carried out by two groups of Eritrean Calgarians, a judge heard Monday, as one detective testified it took nearly 200 officers as well as tear gas grenades and nearly 2,000 rounds of PepperBalls to separate the clashing sides.
A trial began Monday for five men accused of participating in what police and prosecutors have described as a riot.
The five men — Amanuel Kiflezgi Sium, Yamin Okubahanes, Gebrekid Hailemariam, Musie Estifanos and Aman Araya Michael — each face a charge of rioting, possession of a weapon and assault. Okubahanes faces an additional charge of mischief.
Justice Lloyd Robertson heard that on Sept. 2, 2023, two groups of Eritreans — described in court as pro-regime versus anti-regime — had events planned a couple of kilometres apart in the city's northeast.
One group was to meet at 5 p.m. at the Falconridge Community Association while the other group was expected to gather at the Genesis Centre at 6 p.m.
Police said they expected the evening to turn violent.
'Try to get control'
In the weeks before, Eritrean groups had also clashed in two other Canadian cities, necessitating "significant police response," said Det. Averry Yanyk, the Crown's first witness.
"CPS was expecting a high likelihood of violence based on similar events in Toronto and Edmonton," said Yanyk.
Representatives and leaders from different police units met at CPS headquarters in the northeast just 30 minutes before the first event was expected to take place.
The conflict began at the Magnolia Banquet Hall and moved to other locations, including Falconridge Plaza.
At the first location, the Crown says a woman was assaulted.
The detective also testified that several vehicles as well as local businesses were damaged during the conflict.
Yanyk estimated there were 200 police officers dispatched "to try to get control of this event."
There are conflicting estimates of the number of people involved in the clash. On the day of the conflict, CPS said there were "up to 150 people," while a police witness said Monday in court that he believed there were 300 people involved.
'Unprecedented, large-scale, social disorder'
Patrol members as well as CPS's K9, horseback and mountain bike units, the tactical team, special munitions teams and police helicopter all responded to the northeast conflict.
After the briefing meeting, Yanyk testified that he returned to his downtown office and received a call about 90 minutes later from the incident commander advising "that there'd been a giant clash of two groups armed with sticks and rocks."
"This was an unprecedented, large-scale, social disorder event that culminated in violence," said Yanyk.
A 13-minute video played in court on Monday showed the group — mostly men — around the banquet hall, attacking each other with sticks and throwing rocks.
1,800 rounds of PepperBalls deployed
They soon moved to the Falconridge Plaza.
Yanyk said CPS's de-escalation tactics weren't working.
The two groups separated only when the special munitions team deployed 1,800 rounds of PepperBalls, three tear gas grenades and a rubber blast grenade, according to Yanyk, who said he was getting his information at the time from the incident commander.
In the days after the violence, Yanyk became the supervisor of the task force designed to "identify those responsible for the violence and property damage and hold them accountable for their actions."
Investigative challenges
But the investigation had unique challenges.
The biggest, said Yanyk, was that nobody, himself included, had any experience investigating "something of this magnitude."
At the time, police called the incident "the largest violent event to happen in our city in recent memory."
Police had 250 to 300 hours of video from officers' body-worn cameras as well as security camera footage to review.
Yanyk said investigators also struggled to identify the participants, the majority of whom weren't known to police.
There was also the issue of communication.
Dozens of the people whom police wanted to speak with required a Tigrinya language translator.
Crown stayed some of the charges
Yanyk said his provincewide search for an interpreter failed. Eventually he found a civilian colleague who was able to speak the language.
That co-worker assisted with 40 arrests and interviews.
The Crown's case is being heard in a voir dire, which is a hearing to determine whether the evidence presented to the judge is admissible.
Defence lawyer Alain Hepner has already indicated he plans to file a Charter notice, alleging his clients were not given proper access to lawyers before they gave their statements to police.
In the days after the melee, police laid 63 charges against 28 people.
Those charged belong to two groups: the white group and the blue group, labelled by police and prosecutors based on the colour of the T-shirts worn by members.
The blue group, which is staunchly anti-regime, has long-accused the white group of fundraising for the Eritrean military and supporting dictator Isaias Afwerki.
In July, prosecutors dropped all charges faced by all eight members of the white group.
A spokesperson for the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service said the assigned prosecutors "conducted a review of the charges against these individuals and concluded that the test for a prosecution was not met and as such charges have been withdrawn."
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