Police have laid attempted murder and numerous vehicle-related charges against a Somali national suspected of carrying out attacks on a police officer and pedestrians in Edmonton, with possible terrorism charges still pending.
Somalian-born Abdulahi Hasan Sharif, 30, has been charged with five counts of attempted murder, four counts of criminal flight causing bodily harm, one count of dangerous driving and one count of possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, police announced Monday.
Police say Sharif is in Canada as a convention refugee.
The attacks in Edmonton started outside a football game on Saturday night, when a police officer was struck by a car and then stabbed several times. The suspect later deliberately plowed a U-Haul cube van into pedestrians on a downtown street, police allege.
The suspect was arrested after the cube van crashed and flipped onto its side. CTV Edmonton reported that the suspect resisted arrest and a Taser was used to bring him into custody.
Police said on Monday that a post-arrest photo of the suspect shows injuries on his face that were sustained in the crash.
RCMP assistant commissioner Marlin Degrand said the suspect was on the police radar in 2015, when Edmonton police were notified of reports that the man was 鈥渆spousing extremist ideology.鈥�
Degrand said an investigation was launched and RCMP interviewed the suspect, among other people.
鈥淎t the end of that exhaustive investigation, there was insufficient evidence to pursue terrorism charges or a peace bond,鈥� Degrand said.
At that time, the suspect was not deemed a threat to national security since he 鈥渟howed no signs of active recruitment or radicalization to violence,鈥� Degrand said.
He added that police 鈥渉ad no intelligence鈥� that warranted keeping the suspect under further investigation.
Until the weekend attacks in Edmonton, the suspect had 鈥渘o negative interactions of a criminal nature with police,鈥� Degrand said.
Both the RCMP and Edmonton police said it appears the suspect acted alone in the attacks, but their investigation continues.
Individuals with convention refugee status are deemed unable to return to the country they normally live in because of a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.
Sharif is due back in court on Tuesday.
None of the allegations have been tested in court.
