Bad Experiences

"We've had very bad experiences with police in the past, especially my son."
"He wanted to be a lifeguard. It doesn’t make any sense."
"It's just painful for a parent who doesn't have answers to all these questions."
Sultan Sultan, Calgary

Canadian Press   The Special Investigations Unit has identified the man who drowned in the Rideau River on June 24 as Muhab Sultanaly Sultan, left, wanted for the murder of Jeremy Cook.

The questions? They are indeed awkward. And of course it is unfortunate that a young man was shot dead, but Mr. Sultan does not believe his son, wanted on a Canada-wide warrant as the murderer, could possibly have been guilty of such a deed. Yes, there were past brushes with the law. And Muhab Sultanaly Sultan, son of Sultan Sultan had been imprisoned for crimes committed, twice while still a teenager. Little wonder his family had bad experiences with police in the past.

And perhaps the same could be said for the family of Jeremy Cook, an 18-year-old college student from Brampton, studying in London, Ontario who had lost his cellphone, and used a special software application to track the phone. The app in fact tracked the cellphone to a vehicle in a parking lot at 5:00 a.m. and when Jeremy Cook had the effrontery to confront three young men in the car, 23-year-old Muhab Sultanaly Sultan among them, demanding the return of his cellphone, he was shot dead for his efforts.

And, as the situation had it, Muhab Sultanaly Sultan was the shooter. A search was launched for the young man in the wake of the shockingly nasty death of Jeremy Cook. And where did Muhab Sultanaly Sultan turn up? Why in Ottawa, that's where. He was the driver of a car who steered his vehicle directly toward two Ottawa Police Service officers bicycling on the beat in downtown Ottawa, injuring one of the officers.

Other police officers gave chase to the vehicle whose driver fled into a wooded area, and the search continued; the driver who was Mr. Sultan himself later seen attempting to swim across the Rideau River. Two police officers entered the water and saw the man "showing signs of distress", as he slipped under the surface of the water when the police drew close. Sultan Sultan, father of Muhab Sultan suspects skulduggery; his son, he stated, was an excellent swimmer.

Ottawa police pulled a body from the Rideau River Saturday morning, believed to be that of a London murder suspect. Ottawa Citizen

Of course the fact that the family was known to police for actions that drew their attention is incidental to the situation. Clashes with law and order, and authorities on the part of the family denote little, according to Mr. Sultan, skeptical about the official line that his son was wanted as the prime suspect in the murder of Jeremy Cook who had grasped the driver's door of the car he had confronted, only to be shot, his body abandoned behind a strip mall.

Members of the Ottawa Police Underwater Search and Recovery Unit work towards recovering the body of a man in the Rideau River in Ottawa. (Errol McGihon/Ottawa Sun/Postmedia Network)

A police marine dive team searching a section of the river recovered the body of a man, as yet unidentified after a report from a member of the public of having seen a body in the Rideau River, three days after the man was last seen, drowning. Police had contacted the father to provide dental records for identification. And indeed the body was verified to be that of the wanted man, Muhab Sultanaly Sultan.

Whose days, young as he was, of defiance against law and order concluding with the murder of a younger man, are certainly over. He will now no longer present as a problem to authorities, and it can be hoped that neither will the rest of his family. After needless tragedy that saw the end of two young lives and all related to the possession of a relatively innocuous piece of electronic equipment.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-London Police Service     Jeremy Cook, shown in an undated handout photo, was shot by three assailants who fled in a vehicle. Investigators are working to find those responsible for the death of the 18-year-old who was fatally shot as he was trying to find his lost cellphone.