Philippe Morin
Northern News Services
Wednesday, March 05, 2007

INUVIK - A 21-year-old cab driver was shot in the back March 1, as he fled a masked carjacker in Inuvik.

RCMP Staff Sergeant Sidney Gray said the incident happened around 9:30 a.m.,a 10-minute drive outside the community near Shell Lake.

According to family members, Khalid Elkhatib, 21, was driving to the airport when his passenger suddenly brandished a rifle.

Ahmed Mustafa, a cousin of the victim and also a cab driver, said the masked man announced he would take Elkhatib hostage.

The gunman allegedly instructed Elkhatib to lie down in the snow at Jak Park, so he could tie the cab driver's hands and throw him in the trunk of the taxi.

When Elkhatib ran away - according to his cousin Mustafa - the thief shot three times and Elkhatib was hit once in the lower back.

RCMP said the thief then drove off in the stolen cab, heading in the direction of town.

Bleeding from the gunshot wound, a frantic Elkhatib called the RCMP on his cellular phone.

Gray said an ambulance was dispatched, but it was later cancelled after passing drivers found Elkhatib and brought him to hospital.

United and Town taxi dispatcher John Ozolins, who happened to be waiting for a doctor's appointment at the hospital, witnessed Elkhatib's arrival.

He had been talking with Elkhatib minutes before the shooting, and had been working with him throughout the previous night's shift.

"I was at the hospital and he walked in under his own strength," he said.

"He had his shirt open and a white shirt underneath which had a blood stain."

Ozolins added that Inuvik cab drivers often face minor assaults, especially from threatening drunks.

While he was once clubbed on the head with a chair leg, he said the shooting was a new low.

"We've never seen anything like this before," he said.

According to RCMP, Fort McPherson's Edward Christopher Snowshoe, 21, was arrested minutes after the shooting. He was charged with armed robbery and wearing a disguise to commit an offence. Gray said Snowshoe was arrested while driving the cab. He got stuck on a snow ridge and surrendered to officers.

"It was uneventful," Gray said of the arrest. "The driver got hung up in the snow, and gave up. There was no chase involved."

While Elkhatib could not be reached as of press time, Gray said he was recovering nicely.

"We're just in the process of interviewing him," he said.

"He's pretty shaken, and we're trying to minimize his trauma. He's going to be leaving town, his family want him South for rehabilitation," he said.

Mustafa said he's not sure if his cousin will ever return to Inuvik.

"Is he going to come back and risk his life for five dollars? It doesn't seem worth it," he said, referring to the town's flat five-dollar cab rate.

Mustafa added that Elkhatib, like many Inuvik cab drivers, is Palestinian and had been driving a cab in Inuvik for about two years.

He had recently arrived in Canada with his brother Mahmoud Elkhatib, who also drives a cab in the community.

"We'd expect this back home, but not in Inuvik," said Mustafa.

At The Roost restaurant in Inuvik on March 2, emotions were running high.

Terry Elhkatib, who is the victim's uncle, said he thought the charge of armed robbery was insufficient.

Having worked in Inuvik since 1989, he questioned whether his family should stay.

"I feed half this town," he said. "But if it's going to be this way, to hell with it."

Mustafa called on the Inuvik community to demand harsher charges be laid.

"Why only armed robbery?" he said. "There are many other charges you could lay against this guy. He stole the car, he concealed a weapon, he tried to take a hostage. This was planned, it was attempted murder," he said, claiming to have heard the story from Elkhatib himself as he drove him to the airport on March 2.

Snowshoe was being held in Inuvik's holding cell. He is scheduled to be tried on March 26.

Gray said he'd prefer sending the prisoner to Yellowknife, but there is a prisoner queue to be respected and problems with transport.

"Our problem right now is we're having trouble with transport to the South. I've got some people who have been in my cells for the past week or so, and I can't get them out because of transportation problems," he said, discussing the availability of planes.