Paul Morse
Police say the murder of 18-year-old Sharman Abdi on a major Hamilton street earlier this week was a random act of savagery.
Thirty seconds after Abdi and a friend were attacked by a group of strangers, the Hamilton teenager was fatally stabbed once in the chest. They were only a block from Abdi's home.
It was a senseless act -- it's as simple as that," homicide's Detective Sergeant Matt Kavanagh said yesterday.
"Members from the larger group attacked Abdi and his friend. We don't have a motive or a reason."
"There is no evidence that the groups knew each other," Kavanagh said, or that the attack was racially motivated.
Abdi is a first-generation Somali Canadian, and two men who have been charged in his killing are white.
Investigators have ruled out links to street gang activity and any connection to a weekend shooting on Holton Avenue that landed two young men, 16 and 19, in hospital with gunshot wounds, Kavanagh said.
"We don't believe this was gang-related."
Police and paramedics found Abdi bleeding to death on Cannon Street East and rushed him to hospital where he died two hours later.
With next to nothing to go on, Detective Joe Stewart of the homicide unit and patrol officers quickly pieced together enough information from neighbourhood residents to allow them to identify suspects, Kavanagh said.
"Stewart and 19 very young uniform officers canvassed the area, did a ground search and, from their work, we were able to put this together, to their credit."
On Wednesday, police charged Matthew Pepping, 19, with second-degree murder.
Later that day, homicide detectives arrested Gary MacFarlane, 21, and charged him with manslaughter.
No further arrests are expected, said Kavanagh. [email protected]
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