UPDATED: Edmonton landlord Abdullah Shah killed in southwest shooting Sunday night. Going to do a bit of a thread on one of Edmonton's best known crime figures. edmontonjournal.com/news/crime/edm…
Longer tenured #yeg reporters know the story better than I, but Shah came to prominence in 2008 when he was prosecuted as ringleader of a major mortgage fraud scheme. At the time he got out of jail, he & his associates owned 93 properties in the inner-city pressreader.com/canada/edmonto…
The problems with these properties are well-documented. CBC did a whole podcast about Shah. One of his properties was the scene of back-to-back homicides in 2017. cbc.ca/news/canada/ed… | edmontonjournal.com/news/local-new…
Shah and his supporters saw him as someone who housed and employed people who would otherwise be homeless. This (lengthy) news release from 2019 gives a good sense of how he thought of himself. issuewire.com/improving-hous…
Shah repeatedly filed complaints against police — in 2019, his lawyer claimed EPS were involved in a campaign of “harassment" against him and his employees. I can't recall how many Law Enforcement Review Board files he was involved in, but there were many. edmontonjournal.com/news/local-new…
That same year, police and the CRA raided Shah's home + some commercial businesses he owned on 111 Ave. Police ID'd Shah and five others as persons of interest and said they had "allegedly been operating as a criminal organization ... for many years." edmontonjournal.com/news/local-new…
Those raids, however, never resulted in charges. Shah's lawyers accused police of engaging in a "witch hunt." The Law Enforcement Review Board eventually ordered Police Chief Dale McFee to pay Shah and co. $250 each for his handling of the case. edmontonjournal.com/news/local-new…
In the middle of all of this, Shah was charged with trafficking fentanyl as part of a separate investigation. He was supposed to have a preliminary inquiry on the charges earlier this year, but it was delayed by Omicron. New dates were set for June. edmontonjournal.com/news/crime/inn…
In late 2020, Shah pleaded guilty to ordering a "hit" on a former employee in the Edmonton Remand. He got house arrest b/c, although the employee was assaulted, it happened too long after Shah put out the hit. edmontonjournal.com/news/local-new…
A few weeks later, in January 2021, one of the detectives who investigated Shah, Dan Behiels, wrote a letter to Chief McFee claiming that senior EPS members had engaged in "corrupt acts" that "insulated" Shah from prosecution.
edmontonjournal.com/news/local-new…
edmontonjournal.com/news/local-new…
Behiels also leaked materials to @cbcjanjohnston, who wrote a whole series on the EPS and Shah. EPS turned Behiels's claims over to Calgary, who found no evidence of corruption on the part of EPS staff (details from the CPS probe were never disclosed) cbc.ca/news/canada/ed…
Anyway, last August, Shah was shot in the head at one of his 111 Avenue properties. He apparently made a full recovery after spending a few days in hospital. If EPS ever identitied a suspect, they never disclosed. edmontonjournal.com/news/local-new…
A few odds and ends: the ex-employee who Shah tried to have assaulted later plead guilty to threatening Shah (he'd been charged with extortion). edmontonjournal.com/news/local-new…
Behiels, meanwhile, remains suspended without pay edmontonjournal.com/news/local-new…
Behiels, meanwhile, remains suspended without pay edmontonjournal.com/news/local-new…
Apologies, that got kind of ramble-y. I guess my point is that Shah was at the intersection of a ton of issues and stories in this city. I can't think of another person quite like him.
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