Edmonton Somali community mourns 14-year-old boy who drowned
A service was held Wednesday for the 14-year-old boy who recently drowned at a Whitecourt park.
The prayer for Hassan Mohamed was hosted at Al Rashid Mosque in northwest Edmonton.
Dozens of people from the Edmonton Somali community attended.
"When there is a tragedy like this, adversities like this, we all come together and give each other social support," explained Habiba Mohamud.
"It's very hard to see that he's gone when a few days ago he was just smiling and we were playing basketball together," a friend of eight years, Iqitizi Taylor, told CTV News Edmonton.
"I just don't know how to take it all."
Hassan was at Whitecourt's Rotary Park on Sunday with his family. He entered a pond and never resurfaced.
Divers retrieved his body on Tuesday.
The days-long wait to have Hassan's body recovered – which was delayed until Alberta's volunteer underwater search team became available – has only exacerbated the community's pain, Mohamud said.
"What's really making us feel even so bad about what's happened is the way the incident was handled. You're talking of a child who was in the lake for three days and three nights," she told CTV News Edmonton.
It's hard for Hassan's peers to understand, too.
"Why didn't they help him in the first day?" asked Abdirahman Abdi. "Doesn't make sense to me."
Hassan's family and community are advocating for the Alberta government to fund underwater rescue services under the emergency response umbrella and for more safety features at the park.
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Sean McClune
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Maple Leafs fall to Bruins in Game 3, trail series 2-1
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
New Indigenous loan guarantee program a 'really big deal,' Freeland says at Toronto conference
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
'Life was not fair to him': Daughter of N.B. man exonerated of murder remembers him as a kind soul
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.