RAID LEAVES PAINFUL MEMORIES

Man Accuses Drug Squad Of Beating Him Viciously

Beneath a lone tree, in a field not far from his home, Abdulkadir Mohamoud
abruptly turns his head. There are tears in his eyes, ones he did not want
his children to see. He wipes them away with long, slender fingers,
apologizes and continues telling his story.

"They humiliated me," Mohamoud said.

They are Toronto police drug squad officers attached to a unit mired in
controversy. Last week, eight former members of Central Field Command Drugs
were charged with theft, fraud and breach of trust in an alleged
money-skimming scheme.

On April 27, 1999, four drug squad officers, including two charged in that
alleged scheme, stormed a west-end home looking for khat. The leafy
stimulant popular in the Somali community had just been deemed by Canada to
be a controlled substance as nefarious as cocaine and heroin.

According to Mohamoud, he was at the house with his brother and several
friends, waiting to see an old friend who was recovering from a stroke and
recent brain surgery. They were about to have tea when the front door flew
off its hinges with a thunder so great, it conjured up for Mohamoud
memories of the land-mine explosions he had heard so often before leaving
his homeland of Somalia.

Mohamoud says the officers, none of whom were in uniform, stayed for nearly
two hours, during which time his right elbow was broken and his left arm
badly swollen. His arms and hands weren't much use for weeks afterward, and
his wife would have to help him use the bathroom. His nose was also
bloodied. There was a lump on his head. He is almost certain he was out
cold for a spell.

According to police, Mohamoud had been violent and tried to escape.
Mohamoud says that's not true.

The 40-year-old father of three was charged later that night with assault
resisting arrest and possession of khat. No one else in the house was
charged with drug possession.

An officer served Mohamoud the papers as he lay in bed at Humber River
Regional Hospital, where police had taken him after his arrest. A worried
doctor had ordered him kept there after X-rays revealed a fracture.

The charges against Mohamoud have since been dropped, as have charges in at
least 50 other cases involving certain drug squad members.

The fact that Mohamoud's injuries were caused by police is not in dispute.

In October, 1999, nearly six months after the raid, Mohamoud filed a formal
complaint with the Toronto police force over the events of that April
night. He was interviewed by two complaint officers, as were a number of
civilian witnesses. And then, nothing.

Two months ago, he finally received word from a Toronto police officer in
charge of reviewing complaint investigations. In his opinion, there was
``insufficient evidence'' to support the allegations. The civilian
witnesses, whose stories differed to varying degrees, were not thought to
be "independent." The officers' version of events, which complaint
investigators gleaned from their notes and written statements, was consistent.

End of story, as far as the force is concerned.

It is not for Mohamoud, who has appealed the decision to the Ontario
Civilian Commission on Police Services. He also considered a lawsuit, but
he's run out of money to pay a lawyer.

The allegations in this case, like others levelled of late against certain
members of the squad, were serious.

Mohamoud says he was on the ground when he was kicked twice in the head and
then left hog-tied, with his feet tethered to his cuffed hands by telephone
wire, for over an hour. He alleges an officer stepped hard on his
restrained arms, which is when he believes his elbow was broken.

As his trial date for the khat and assault police charges was nearing,
Mohamoud, laid off from a clerical job he had held with the Ontario
Securities Commission for 11 years, was offered a deal: If he would agree
to sign a peace bond, the charges would go away. He refused.

This past spring, a provincial crown attorney withdrew the assault police
charge without explanation. The khat charge went away as well when a
federal prosecutor decided it would be a waste of court time to proceed on
a simple possession charge. Mohamoud maintains he never had any khat on him
and would say so if he had.

According to notes made by officers involved in the raid, Abdulkadir
Mohamoud was violently out of control the night of April 27, 1999, tried to
escape and had to be forcefully subdued.

Mohamoud and three civilian witness who spoke to The Star say it was the
officers who were out of line.

Search-warrant documents viewed by The Star indicate a confidential
informant had told an officer earlier in the day about a home on Maybank
Ave., near St. Clair Ave. W. and Weston Rd., where high-quality khat could
be purchased. The informant also provided officers with the name of a woman
supposedly in charge of selling it.

The door came crashing in at 8:50 p.m. - a sound that brought Mohamoud to
his feet.

"Police! Police! Get on the ground!" yelled an officer in street clothes.

Eight people were in the house. Two were daughters of the couple who lived
in the home. The rest, Mohamoud included, were visitors. The owners were
out at a show.

Mohamoud says he stepped over one of his friends, who was already on the
floor, and then decided to hit the ground himself. He says he was belly
down, with his hands already behind his head, when an officer kicked him in
the head. He recalls being kicked in the head a second time and believes he
then went unconscious.

When he came to, his hands were cuffed behind his back. He says officers
used a telephone cord to bind his ankles together and attached the cord to
his handcuffs. Three civilian witnesses also told police Mohamoud had been
tied with a cord. The officers denied they hog-tied Mohamoud. The notes of
two of the officers state that two sets of handcuffs were used to bind both
Mohamoud's wrists and ankles.

Mohamoud says he could barely breathe and pleaded repeatedly for help.

According to Mohamoud, a bald officer with a cigar in his mouth told him to
shut up, and said: "F-----g Somalians, why don't you do something with your
lives?''

"Then he came over, and that's when he stepped on me."

At that point, Mohamoud says, he heard his right arm crack.

Ali Hidig tells a similar version of what happened to his friend Mohamoud.
Hidig was handcuffed next to him on the floor.

"He was crying and saying stuff to me," Hidig said in an interview. "He
wasn't resisting anything. They were very rough people. I can't believe
that they were police." Hidig, 38, says Mohamoud pleaded with officers to
leave him alone and told them he was injured. Hidig says officers used foul
language and made racial comments.

He says he saw an officer kick Mohamoud in the head and that he, too, was
kicked in the head by police but did not file a complaint.

Hidig says police covered his eyes with something at one point. After that,
he could only hear what was going on around him. In an interview with
police complaint investigator Detective Christine Long, Hidig said an
officer told him later that night to "keep your mouth shut" about what had
happened.

The sisters, now 15 and 21, who lived in the home also saw much of what
happened that night. Mohamoud's relationship with them and their family was
so close, the sisters refer to him to this day as "uncle."

Both say the officers stormed in with guns drawn. They recall being ordered
to the ground and seeing Mohamoud looking for space on the floor when two
to three officers took him down. "Get down on the f-----g ground," the
younger sister remembers hearing.

They both say Mohamoud did not resist the officers and that he was
unconscious for some time. They say officers used a telephone cord they had
yanked out of the wall to tie his wrists to his feet. They did not see any
officers kick him.

The older sister, according to the final complaint report, told
investigator Long that she came home about 5:30 p.m. and the visitors were
already there and chewing khat. She told Long she didn't know where it came
from. It was a tradition, she said.

The sister told Long, and The Star, that she was ordered to lie on the
floor near Mohamoud. "I told one of the officers, 'He can't breathe. Can
you loosen one of the wires on him?' " The answer, she said, was no. She
said the officer told her to "shut the f--- up," or she too would be tied
up like Mohamoud.

The older sister also said Mohamoud was ordered later to touch his nose,
and couldn't. She said one officer then said, "It's definitely broken, . .
. it's f----n' broken."

Police left the house at about 10:30 p.m. Inside, the place was a mess, say
the two sisters. They say the officers left a pager number and told them
they should call it when their parents came home. Later that night, they
say they called the number repeatedly. No one called back, they say.

The police version of events comes from notes the officers made after the
takedown.

According to the notes of Detective John Schertzer, the officer in charge
of the raid, he saw a male attempting to escape just moments after the
officers stormed into the home.

Schertzer notes that two other officers, Detective Constables Richard
Benoit and Chris Higgins, began struggling with the man, whom they would
later identify as Mohamoud. He was "violently fighting, . . . kicking and
punching," Schertzer wrote in his memo book. Mohamoud, according to
Benoit's notes, was "frantic to escape" and tried to push a wall unit on
him. Mohamoud "became stronger and more violent," wrote Benoit, as he and
Higgins struggled to subdue him.

Both officers noted that Mohamoud was spitting out what they believed to be
khat. Higgins also noted that when he first saw Mohamoud, there was a
bundle of khat in his hand. According to Benoit's notes, Mohamoud calmed
down after he had been restrained and offered this apology: "I'm so sorry
for what I have done. It's not like me at all. I'm sorry for fighting with
you."

Mohamoud says he gave no such apology. In an interview with police
complaint investigator Long, Mohamoud said: "I am not an idiot. . . . When
I heard them say 'Police,' I hit the ground. I did not raise an arm to
police. The only word(s) I used was 'Please. My arm was broken. I am not
going anywhere. Please, I am in pain.' I stand 100 per cent on that."

The officers took their time searching the home. According to a report
filed by Constable Sean McGuinness, who was in charge of exhibits, seven
bundles of khat, as well as some baggies containing more dried leaves, were
seized.

Over an hour after the raid began, Mohamoud was still on his belly and in
excruciating pain. He was still restrained.

An officer Mohamoud thought to be the one in charge took a look at him and
ordered the restraints removed. "And they tell me to touch my nose. I'm
saying, 'I can't, I can't.' "

Mohamoud says an officer told him he was sorry. Mohamoud says he stayed
silent. "There was just tears in my eyes. I just look at him.''

The takedown was over within five minutes of the door being bashed in,
which, according to police notes, happened at 8:50 p.m.

The notes state Mohamoud complained of an injured arm but was not taken to
hospital until 10:07 p.m.

Hospital records indicate severe swelling and bruising to the left elbow
and a fracture of the right elbow. The right arm was placed in a cast. The
left arm was so badly injured, Mohamoud had to use a sling to keep it immobile.

The woman police said they were looking for that night was the wife of the
man Mohamoud had gone to the house to visit. She was never charged.

In fact, no one but Mohamoud was charged.

Schertzer, the officer in charge of the raid, was slapped with several
internal Police Services Act charges Sept. 5. They relate to alleged
procedural gaffes surrounding the raid.

The charges, however, have nothing to do with the allegations made in
Mohamoud's complaint. The 25-year veteran, who was recently promoted to
staff sergeant, and Constable Sean McGuinness were among the eight officers
charged last week in the informant money investigation. They are to appear
in court in January.