EDMONTON -- A police officer took the stand Monday during the fourth day of a trial for Abdulahi Hasan Sharif.
The officer testified under a number, instead of a name, because of the sensitive nature of his work as an undercover operator.
He was placed in a cell at Edmonton Police Headquarters on Oct. 1, 2017, along with Sharif.
Sharif faces 11 charges, including five counts of attempted murder, in connection with a series of violent crimes on Sept. 30, 2017.
It’s alleged he struck EPS Const. Michael Chernyk with his car, then got out and attacked the officer with a knife. Const. Chernyk was manning a traffic checkpoint outside an Edmonton Eskimos game at the time.
A few hours later, Sharif allegedly led police on a chase through downtown, while driving a rented U-Haul truck, hitting and seriously injuring four pedestrians.
On the stand, the undercover officer told the court that he had a conversation with Sharif in the cell. He testified that Sharif told him he didn’t have car insurance, and was worried the police officer at the traffic checkpoint would pull him over.
“Mr. Sharif said he got scared so he hit the cop with his car,” the officer told the courtroom.
He said Sharif also went on to talk about the events later the same evening, testifying, "Mister Sharif stated that at one point, downtown, he hit three to five people with the U-Haul truck, when he was trying to get away."
The crown also called Tamara Gorman to the stand Monday. Gorman was working at the U-Haul rental location in Leduc on the day of the attacks.
The court watched video surveillance showing Gorman renting a truck to a man. Gorman identified Sharif as the person in the video, and testified that he seemed distracted, telling the court, “He would not look me in the eye and kept looking around in every direction.”
Sharif is defending himself in court, listening to proceedings with the help of a Somali translator. For the fourth day, he chose not to cross-examine any of the witnesses.
