Despite police identifying Nur as the shooter depicted on security footage, the court was left with doubt about who shot Dustin Smagata.
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A Regina judge has found Kamalladin Nur not guilty of attempted murder in relation to a shooting that occurred outside of a Regina hookah bar on July 21, 2019.
That decision was delivered by Regina Provincial Court Judge Marylynne Beaton on Monday afternoon, offering a conclusion to a trial that faced multiple delays after it began back in 2021.
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Beaton acquitted Nur of all charges he faced in relation to the incident, which included a number of firearms charges.
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The case was very much one in which identity was at issue. And in the end, it was Beaton’s decision that the court could not be certain that Nur was the man depicted on video surveillance footage capturing the incident at the business on Regina’s Broad Street on the date in question.
The victim, Dustin Smagata, testified that he didn’t know who’d shot him, or how the shooting came about. He hadn’t seen Nur there, he told court. But if he had, he’d have shaken his hand, he said, noting he’d known Nur since they went to school together.
He called the surveillance footage “kind of grainy.”
Beaton said she questioned the credibility of Smagata’s testimony, though noted she could not discount it in its entirety.
“Mr. Smagata did not testify in a forthright manner,” she said, noting he couldn’t recognize himself in the footage when he “ought to have been able to do so.”
The victim “did not seem too concerned that he had been seriously injured,” the judge said, having outlined how he was hospitalized for weeks with colon and liver lacerations from the gunshot wounds.
Two police officers did identify Nur as the shooter seen on the video footage, based on their knowledge of him from previous surveillance and dealings. However, Beaton noted that one had been told Nur was a suspect before viewing the video, and another couldn’t be sure whether they’d been told he was a suspect prior to viewing.
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A number of other witnesses testified, and Beaton mentioned two that raised doubt about the identity of the shooter.
She summarized their evidence, noting both were working security for the bar on the night in question and were familiar with Nur.
One did not recall seeing him there on the night in question. Nur had previously been a customer of his “food vehicle,” he said. He told police he couldn’t identify the shooter in the video and later testified it was not Nur.
Another said he did not know whether Nur was at the bar at the relevant time, and could not identify the shooter from the video. The judge said the witness remembered viewing a photo lineup, but couldn’t remember telling the police that Nur was at the lounge on the night in question.
The judge said she had to weight the police identification evidence against the evidence of these witnesses and Smagata.
“Based on all of the evidence presented, I cannot be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Nur shot Mr. Smagata,” Beaton said.
The judge’s conclusion set off what appeared to be relieved murmuring from those in the gallery in support of Nur. Before the acquitted man walked out of court, he pointed to a smattering of grey hairs on his head and attributed them to his dealings with the law.
Prosecutor Derek Davidson said he felt Beaton’s decision was detailed and well-thought, but noted the Crown would review it and explore the possibility of an appeal.
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