Immigrant who pointed loaded gun in Calgary road rage incident won't face deportation, judge says
An Ethiopian immigrant who pulled out a loaded handgun, pointed it at another driver and threatened to shoot during a fight that was sparked by a “minor traffic infraction” in Calgary failed to convince a judge to tailor his sentence to avoid deportation.
Instead, an Alberta Court of Justice judge sentenced Thomas Kahsay Berhe to three years in prison for being in possession of a loaded Glock 19 9 mm pistol, pointing it at the other driver, threatening to shoot him, and for, eleven days later, when police finally caught up to him, being a passenger in a car that he knew contained a loaded .38 calibre revolver.
But Justice A.J. Brown pointed out there’s not much danger of Berhe being deported to Ethiopia any time soon.
While any sentence longer than six months behind bars would make Berhe “subject to an automatic removal order,” said the judge, “Immigration Canada does stay removal orders to enumerated countries that are in a state of war or otherwise subject to violence, danger, terrorism, etc.; currently, Ethiopia is one such country.”
The Crown argued for three years behind bars, said the April 22 decision.
Berhe’s lawyer asked for a conditional sentence order of two years, less a day, followed by two years of probation.
The court heard that Berhe, now 27, got in an argument with another driver around 5:15 p.m. on June 9, 2023.
“The argument was over a minor traffic infraction and took place in the Mission district in Calgary, roughly 10 blocks south of the downtown business core of the city,” said the decision.
The other driver “soon disengaged from the argument and drove two blocks further south to pull into the parking area for a pub,” said the decision.
As he was parking his truck, “Berhe approached the passenger side, hands in the pockets of his jacket, concealing a fully loaded Glock pistol, and opened the door of the truck to confront” him, said the decision.
The other driver asked Berhe if he wanted to fight, “to which Mr. Berhe replied that, no, he was going to shoot him.”
A physical fight ensued, “during which the Glock fell out of Mr. Berhe’s pocket to the ground. As the fight continued, Mr. Berhe retrieved the gun and tried to point it, finger on the trigger, at” the other driver.
As he pointed the Glock, Berhe struck the other driver on the right side of the head with it, said the decision.
“This action caused the gun once more to be knocked to the ground, out of Mr. Berhe’s hand,” said the decision.
“The physical fight continued until the two men were separated by bystanders.”
Berhe took off with a woman in a white Hyundai before police showed up. After investigators reviewed surveillance video of the altercation, they put out a Need-to-Identify bulletin that included a description of Berhe.
“Eleven days later, a detective recognized Mr. Berhe from the bulletin as he left a home several blocks away from the location of the events of June 9 and entered the white Hyundai,” said the decision.
“Police then conducted a high-risk vehicle stop of the Hyundai in which Mr. Berhe was the front passenger and seized from the floor under his seat a .38 calibre revolver, fully loaded with five live rounds.”
Aggravating factors in the case, according to Brown, “are the extreme danger posed to public safety (the June 9 events occurred towards the end of rush hour on a Friday in the densely populated Calgary downtown core); on both occasions, the handguns were fully loaded; and, the attack on Mr. Gabel was persistent and ended only when bystanders, at risk to their personal safety, intervened.”
Her decision points out that “at no time did Mr. Berhe have a firearms licence, or any registration for a firearm.”
Mitigating factors in the case include Berhe’s youth, guilty pleas, lack of a previous record; “his remorse, insight and post-offence rehabilitation; and his family and community support,” said the judge.
“While there are serious immigration consequences flowing from a lengthy term of imprisonment for Mr. Berhe,” Brown said, a landmark Supreme Court of Canada case that established that sentencing judges may consider collateral immigration consequences “makes clear that they must never result in imposition of an unfit sentence.”
Berhe was born in Ethiopia and came to Canada on a student visa in 2015.
“He describes his upbringing as loving and supportive, although strict. Both he and his brother came to rebel against their parents, in their twenties; his brother is currently incarcerated, and Mr. Berhe was effectively estranged from his parents once he moved out of their home.”
A pre-sentence report “described Mr. Berhe as sincere, forthright, insightful, remorseful and genuinely committed to a prosocial life following the birth of his daughter in April 2024,” said the decision.
His “life took a dramatic and positive turn with the birth of his daughter. Although he does not live with his daughter and her mother, he is a fully engaged father, determined to be a positive role model for his child and remain a prosocial member of the community. His father confirms Mr. Berhe’s complete turnaround.”
The judge “concluded that the seriousness of Mr. Berhe’s crimes requires a sentence of three years incarceration, to properly address denunciation, deterrence and public safety, and cannot be reduced despite his very sympathetic current circumstances that have come about following the birth of his daughter.”
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