A Calgary man who shot into a crowded bar, killing a new-to-Canada refugee pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Tuesday and was handed an eight-year prison sentence.
Originally charged with second-degree murder, Yosief Daniel Hagos, 25, pleaded guilty to the lesser offence after negotiations between prosecutor Melissa Bond and defence lawyer Shamsher Kothari.
Samuel Welday Haile, 24, was fatally shot in the early morning hours of Dec. 25, 2022, at Bella’s Bar in the city’s southeast.
Haile survived seven years in an Ethiopian refugee camp before his aunt — who spent tens of thousands of dollars and years fighting — was able to bring her nephew to Canada in late 2021.
‘He embraced every opportunity’
In a victim impact statement, Haile’s aunt described him as a man who “did not take his new life in Canada for granted.”
“He embraced every opportunity Canada had to offer,” she wrote.
In the 13-months he lived in Calgary, Haile worked three jobs, learned to drive, volunteered in his community and played the kirar, a traditional instrument.
He also supported fellow refugees emotionally and financially. Haile’s aunt told the court that he had been secretly sharing the money that had been sent to him when he was at a refugee camp with other refugees.
“He was not just a young man trying to build a better life for himself, he was a source of hope and kindness to everyone around him,” wrote the aunt.
Killer was under house arrest
On Tuesday, dozens of the victim’s friends, family and community members packed into two courtrooms to witness Hagos’s plea.
Court of King’s Bench Justice David Labrenz accepted a joint recommendation from Bond and Kothari for an eight-year prison sentence.
An agreed statement of facts detailing the crime was read into the record by Bond, the prosecutor.
Court heard that Hagos was on bail at the time of the shooting and was under 24-hour house arrest. He was required to wear a GPS ankle monitoring device and was banned from possessing firearms.
Instead, he showed up with a loaded gun to a private party at Bella’s Restaurant and Bar in Forest Lawn.
Gun pulled in bathroom
Hagos wasn’t invited but his friends let him in around 3:45 a.m. Shortly after arriving, Hagos went to the washroom. There were three other men inside.
According to the agreed statement of facts, Hagos pointed a gun at the head of one of the men in the bathroom and told him to leave.
The man left the bathroom and his friends flagged the bar owner that someone had a gun at the party.
After Hagos left the washroom, he continued drinking and socializing with friends.
Around 4 a.m., Semhar Haileslase, the bar owner, asked Hagos if he had a gun. He denied it.
Single shot
Hagos was allowed to stay at the bar and socialize.
About 25 minutes later, a fight broke out in the bar. Both Hagos and Haile walked toward the conflict, which involved pushing and shoving, according to the agreed statement of facts.
The owner held the front door open, trying to get people to leave. Hagos exited through the front door but turned around and fired a single shot from the doorway into the bar where about 30 people had gathered.
Haile was struck by a bullet that tore through his torso and a wall at the back of the bar, landing in an adjoining business.
‘Samuel fought so hard to escape violence’
The victim ran to the kitchen, where he was found on the floor by friends a few minutes later. They loaded him into their car and drove him to hospital. He was dead by 7 a.m.
“Samuel fought so hard to escape violence, displacement and instability in Africa only to be killed in a public recreational space,” wrote his aunt. “This is not an isolated incident. Multiple Eritrean immigrants have been killed in similar circumstances, highlighting a disturbing pattern of violence that continues unchecked.”
The victim and killer did not know each other and had no interaction at Bella’s that night.
‘What have I done?’
After the shooting, Hagos fled the scene.
Once he arrived home, Hagos called Haileslase, the bar owner, 16 times, including the initial call that lasted just over seven minutes.
“In the first phone call to Semhar … the accused sounded afraid and in shock,” reads the agreed statement of facts.
“He asked Semhar, ‘what have I done?'”
Semhar told Hagos he’d killed someone.
Hagos then told Semhar to erase the camera footage from the bar’s security camera system.
Hagos a refugee, too
Later that day, Hagos was driven to a Red Deer apartment building, where he cut off his ankle monitor, and fled to Saskatchewan.
Six months after a Canada-wide warrant was issued for his arrest, Hagos turned himself in to Calgary police on June 26, 2023.
Hagos also came to Canada as a refugee. He arrived in 2014 after spending years in a Sudanese camp, according to Kothari, the defence lawyer.
Kothari called the shooting a “poor decision” and said his client has an “extreme amount of remorse.”
In handing down the sentence, Justice Labrenz called Hagos’s crime “reprehensible.”
‘Complete stupidity’
He also pointed out that both the victim and killer came to Canada as refugees “in hope of a better life.
“[And] in a hope of personal security, and to find that that security did not exist in this country because despite Canadian laws that would prohibit this gun from being where it was … laws don’t always stop criminal conduct,” said Labrenz.
He then addressed Hagos directly.
“You caused yourself harm, you caused society harm and you caused somebody to pay the ultimate price for an act of stupidity,” said the judge.
“Complete stupidity.”
