Quebec family wants answers 3 weeks after father, son hit during police shootout

MONTREAL — The family of a father and son caught in crossfire between Montreal police and a suspect earlier this month still doesn’t know whose bullets hit them — and why the two men were handcuffed after they were injured.

Houssam Abdallah, 52, remains in intensive care in hospital and is set to undergo more medical procedures as he recovers from five bullet wounds. The father of four was hailed as a hero for putting himself in the line of fire on the evening of Aug. 4.

Abdallah’s son, Abdel Rahman, 18, was shot in the back after a volley of bullets were exchanged between police and an armed 26-year-old suspect in front of the family’s home in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Que.

The family says between 30 and 40 shots were fired and that their car had nine bullet holes in it; they say a car nearby had four.

More than three weeks removed from the shootout, the Abdallah family still doesn’t know whether the bullets that hit the two men came from police or the suspect. As well, the family says the police haven’t explained why officers handcuffed the father and son after they were injured.

“We’re trying to get answers,” said Jana Abdallah, 22, Houssam’s oldest child, in an interview on Monday.

“We feel like we’ve kind of been left in the dark a little as to what is happening — who shot who, why this happened — but also in terms of compensations and services … there hasn’t been any cohesive support, we’re always having to push and push to fight for our rights.”

The suspect, Nackeal Hickey, was allegedly attempting to steal Abdallah’s vehicle shortly before the shooting started. The Abdallah family was unloading the vehicle after returning from a camping trip. Jana said her father told the suspect the keys were still in the car, and that moments later bullets rang out and the family started moving toward their home.

Abdallah was shot five times, and Abdel Rahman, who has been released from hospital, was hit once.

Jana says her father tried to explain to police that he was not a suspect, but she said his handcuffs were only removed after insistence from the paramedic. Her brother wasn’t released from handcuffs until he got to the hospital, she added.

Hickey faces 15 charges, including four counts of attempted murder. But for now, he hasn’t been charged for shooting the Abdallahs. Hickey is due back in court in November, according to court records.

The Quebec provincial police and the province’s police watchdog — Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes — say the investigation is ongoing.

Jana says her father, a logistics supervisor at Montreal’s Sainte-Justine Hospital, was the family’s primary provider and that she wants to know what financial resources are available to help them. She said a support worker with a victims’ aid group suggested they ask family and friends for money.

Initially, they were told they wouldn’t qualify for compensation, but later, Jana said she was told to apply to a government body that distributes money to victims of crime, called Indemnisation des victimes d’actes criminels, or IVAC. But she said neither she nor her brother have heard back.

The scars the family is dealing with aren’t only physical: the youngest sibling, a nine-year-old boy, is plagued by nightmares.

Meanwhile, Jana said she’ll return to Concordia University after the summer break to complete her athletic therapy degree. “I’m going to try to go back because my dad wants to see me graduate at the end of this (school) year. He insisted that he wants to see me walk across that stage.”

The family held a news conference on Sunday to mark three weeks since gunfire erupted on their street.

They approached the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations, a Montreal-based civil rights organization, for help with the weekend news conference. Fo Niemi, executive director of CRAAR, called on crime victims support groups to show more sensitivity and flexibility.

“It’s terrible, it’s the worst of nightmares, it’s a whole family is falling into tatters,” Niemi said in an interview Monday.

“It’s not only that, but we’re looking at the physical, we have to look at the psychological and then the material and financial consequences, and some of these things can take months to get over.”

Jana says she hopes that the family’s news conference will bring them some answers.

“We’re hoping that now there’ll be a bit more transparency, that we’ll be able to have a bit more answers,” Jana said Monday. “Not necessarily speed up the process because I want the process to be done properly, we want the proper procedures to be followed, we want the right answers given to us.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 26, 2024.

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press