Appointed counsel John Turner suggested Sunday Aro punched Mohamed Daud Omar and choked him when the two tussled over damage done to a housemate’s car
A man who was stabbed in his home two years ago over a car-damage dispute rejected a lawyer’s suggestions on Wednesday that he punched or choked his roommate before the latter stabbed him in the arm and face with two knives.
Mohamed Daud Omar, 30, is charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and break-and-enter in connection with the Feb. 6, 2022, incident that left Sunday Aro, 33, with stab injuries. Justice Matthew Kirchner is presiding over Omar’s judge-alone trial in the B.C. Supreme Court, which is scheduled to take two weeks.
On Wednesday, appointed counsel John Turner, who is questioning Aro on behalf of Omar — who is representing himself in the trial — suggested Aro had punched Omar and choked him when the two tussled in Omar’s room that morning over damage done to housemate Ling Pang’s car overnight.
Turner is questioning civilian witnesses who do not want to be questioned by Omar.
Aro denied Turner’s accusation and said he only pushed Omar, held him against the wall of his bedroom and pinned him to the floor during the fight.
On Monday, Aro testified that Omar left the room after the fight and stabbed him twice in their shared two-storey home on Lang Street — once while he was coming down the stairway, and again near the house’s main entrance with another knife after Omar tried to break into his bedroom while Aro was making a 911 call about the first stabbing.
A recording of the 911 call, which has been heard in court, contains sounds of shouting and banging, which Aro said came from Omar trying to break into his bedroom.
Aro denied a suggestion from Turner that he made the 911 call from outside his room.
Aro said he wasn’t sober when he went to bed at 2 a.m. after having seven drinks and wasn’t entirely sober around 7 a.m. when the stabbing occurred. “I won’t say I was sober, but I was OK,” said Aro, who said he was angry when he confronted Omar about the car damage.
Another housemate, Qianhe Qian, also known as Kevin Qian, testified that he saw Aro punch Omar in the face several times after Aro entered Omar’s room and pushed Omar in the chest.
Qian, who was questioned by Crown prosecutor Paul Cheeseman on Wednesday via video link, said that he was woken up that morning by the sounds of loud banging.
He opened his door and saw Aro knocking on the door to Omar’s room with Pang standing behind him, Qian said.
Qian, who wasn’t wearing his usual eyeglasses at the time, said he wasn’t sure how many punches were thrown.
Both he and Pang tried to pull Aro off Omar, but failed to do so, Qian said, adding that he couldn’t recall if anything was said during the altercation.
Qian said he only remembers Omar saying to Aro: “I’m going to kill you,” after the punching stopped.Both he and Pang trailed Aro when he followed Omar downstairs, Qian said.
As Pang and Aro reached the bottom of the stairs, Omar began stabbing Aro with something sharp in a horizontal thrusting motion, Qian said.
Qian said he knew the object was sharp because Aro began bleeding immediately all over the walls, carpet and stairs.
Qian’s cross-examination was expected to wrap up Wednesday, with the trial scheduled to continue Thursday.
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