riot suspect told calgary police detective he intended to take part in 'peaceful demonstration'
'i agree we were there for a peaceful demonstration ... but what we found there was a different situation'
2 minute read
glass debris are seen on the ground where the windows and glass doors of a business at falconridge plaza were shattered and broken during a clash between two eritrean groups with conflicting views of their home country’s politics. photos were captured on monday, sept. 4, 2023.
azin ghaffari/postmedia
one of five men charged with taking part in a riot during a clash of opposing members of calgary’s eritrean community said he was there for a peaceful demonstration, court heard monday.
det. david hsu testified he interviewed amanuel sium on oct. 31, 2023, weeks after two groups clashed outside a community hall in the city’s northeast community of falconridge.
hsu’s questioning of the eritrean man was translated by a calgary police service civilian employee.
“i understand that there’s a lot of political issues in eritrea and i’m trying to get a background of why personally he was there,” hsu told the interpreter, who then questioned sium.
“the reason? i was in a peaceful demonstration . . . to go against the people who were attending the event at the time,” sium was reported to have said.
court earlier heard a group who became known as the white shirts, because most of them were dressed that way, had booked an event at the community hall on sept. 2, 2023.
“who were the people that were at the event?” hsu asked.
“the white shirts,” sium replied through the interpreter.
defence counsel alain hepner, who represents all five on trial before justice lloyd robertson, is challenging the admissibility of statements made by the accused.
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before the interview began, sium presented hsu with a letter from his then-lawyer, marc crarer, which said he was under instruction not to discuss the incident, which left him facing charges of taking part in a riot, possession of a dangerous weapon and assault with a weapon.
despite the instructions from his lawyer, sium identified still photos of himself taken from body-worn camera footage from officers who attended the clash.
“was he involved in violence or anything like that?” hsu asked through the civilian employee.
“we were just doing a peaceful demonstration, but the other guys came out from the hall and start throwing stones at us,” sium replied.
hsu then played a video clip from one of the officer’s body-worn cameras showing the groups clashing.
“so, would you agree this isn’t peaceful?” the officer said.
“i agree we were there for a peaceful demonstration . . . but what we found there was a different situation.”
the windows and glass doors of a business at falconridge plaza were shattered and broken during a clash between two eritrean groups with conflicting views of their home country’s politics. photos were captured on monday, sept. 4, 2023.
azin ghaffari/postmedia
hsu also showed sium a clip in which he struck a woman eight times with what the officer called a stick, but sium said was a pole he was carrying to display the anti-eritrean government protesters’ flag.
sium said the woman had discharged something like bear spray at his group before he struck her.
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“the stick i was holding was to hold this flag, and this just happened.”
also charged in connection with the alleged riot are aman araya michael, musie estafanos, gebrekid hailemariam and yamin okubahanes.
the trial is scheduled to conclude this week.
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