5 men face charges in connection with Mohamed Najdi homicide

Fivemen from Ottawa have been chargedwithfirst-degree murder and kidnappingin connection with the January shooting death of Mohamed Najdi.

• Mohamed Najdi dead after targeted shooting Sunday night, police say

Four of thefive were arrested on Saturday andbriefly appeared by video in an Ottawa courtroom Sunday. They are:

• Alaa Asiri, 33,
• Ali Elenezi, 18,
• Lual Lual, 26,
• Mohamud Yusuf, 25.

A fifth man, 32-year-old Mohamed Mohamed, was already in jail on different charges.

Police allege in their charge sheetthat the five accused and an unidentified male pulled up in a black ChevroletSuburban and attacked Najdi and another man as they sat in a parking lot at 10 Claremont Drive, east of downtown Ottawa, the night of Jan. 10.

The other man was bound with duct tape and put in the Suburban, police allege.Najdi fought the accused off and was shot in the back by Mohamed when he tried to run away, police say.

He was taken to the Ottawa Hospital's Generalcampus trauma unit in critical condition, where helater died from his injuries.

At the time of his death, sources told CBC Ottawa thatNajdiwas also awitness in the 2015 shooting death ofSharifSaid.

Najdi'sdeath wasOttawa's first homicide of 2016.

Video, DNA evidence

Police say the kidnapping victim told them that a group of people wearing masks drove him to Orlans, where they got rid of the firearms used in the shooting, and then drove him back downtown.

Najdi'sthen-girlfriend told police he said he would be going out for a few minutes. Hours later, however, fourof the accused showed up with the still-captive kidnapping victim and took some of Najdi's belongings before leaving, police say.

Police allege in the charge sheet that ablack Suburban whichhad allegedly been seen parked outside the home ofNajdi and the kidnapping victim had been stopped by Gatineau police a few hours before the homicide.

Asiri was behind the wheel andthree other people were inside, along with two flat screen televisions, according to the charge sheet.

Elenezi was caught on camera inside an Orlans gas station wearing a gold Spiderman chain that belonged to Najdi, police allege.

Police also allege that forensic testing showed Asiri'sDNA on a balaclava found near the crime scene and Lual's DNA on a piece of duct tape found inside the Suburban.

Mohamed is expected to return to court April 15, while the four other accused are scheduled toreturn April 25.

They have each been ordered not to communicate with a list of more than 20 people.