Edmonton Terrorist Is a Somali Refugee

You have probably heard about last night’s terrorist attack in Edmonton. It began when a man driving a Chevrolet Malibu crashed through a police barrier associated with a sports event and struck an Edmonton police officer, throwing him 15 feet through the air. The terrorist, who had an ISIS flag in the front seat of his vehicle, then jumped out of the car and attacked the officer with a knife, stabbing him repeatedly. This part of the attack was recorded on video:

This is a photo of the ISIS flag inside the vehicle:

After trying unsuccessfully to steal the officer’s gun, the terrorist fled. Several hours later, police stopped a U-Haul truck and checked the driver’s identification. They recognized that the driver’s name was the same as or similar to the name under which the Malibu was registered. That caused the terrorist to flee in the U-Haul, driving over pedestrians whenever he could. Four pedestrians were hospitalized after being intentionally struck, one of whom has a fractured skull.

Police chased the U-Haul truck, which ultimately tipped over. They caught the driver and arrested him.

The terrorist has now been identified as Abdulahi Hasan Sharif, a Somali national who was granted refugee status in Canada. Like most such terrorists, he is a “known wolf.”

Police chief Rod Knecht said at a Sunday afternoon news conference that the man, who came to the attention of law enforcement in 2015 for “espousing extremist ideology” is believed to have acted alone.

Sharif was on a “police watch list,” but apparently he wasn’t being watched closely enough. It is worth noting that Somalia is one of the countries on President Trump’s travel ban order. If that order were in effect, Abdulahi Hasan Sharif would not have been permitted to enter the United States. I have written that the president’s travel ban doesn’t go far enough to do much good, but this is one example of a terrorist attack that the travel ban, if in effect when the terrorist sought to enter the U.S., would prevent.

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