HUNTER: Two double murders. Two brothers. Two cold cases
Article content
Oakville doesn’t make anyone’s red zone list.
The tony town west of Toronto is about as safe a place as there is in the GTA. Lots of upscale restos, brew pubs and a Whole Foods vibe give it the Yuppie stamp of approval.
Recommended Videos
tap here to see other videos from our team.
HUNTER: Two double murders. Two brothers. Two cold cases Back to video
tap here to see other videos from our team.
Which makes the May 16, 2020 double homicide at a small, industrial plaza north of the QEW an even greater mystery.
If the cops know its ins and outs, they haven’t been willing to share them. Several calls to Halton Regional Police homicide from the Toronto Sun have gone unreturned.
What is known is that around 3:10 a.m. on that Saturday morning, a gunman or gunmen shot four people in the parking lot at the offices of the PurePages Internet company on Iroquois Shore Rd. — near Eighth Line and Hwy. 403.
tap here to see other videos from our team.
One man was dead at the scene, another died in hospital and two more were wounded.
Detectives called it a targeted shooting and if the bullet-riddled SUV at the scene was any indication, that’s a pretty good conclusion.
The two victims were Afheed “Al” Rehmtulla, 43, and Kareem Wade, 34. Cops withheld the names of the two survivors.
Now, nine months later, there has been nary a peep in a case that is loaded with questions.
Among them: Who was the target? Why were they targeted? And finally, what were the four techies doing at work at 3 a.m. on a Friday night?
On Facebook, PurePages is described as a company that “provides internet and wireless solutions for hotels, restaurants, coffee shops and businesses.”
Not exactly a hacking operation for Russian intelligence.
tap here to see other videos from our team.
There is also the matter of Rehmtulla’s brother Aleem.
Aleem Rehmtulla was clocked in as homicide No. 0632005 in the Year of the Gun.
The 25-year-old died in a hail of bullets alongside his buddy, Fahim Talakshi, 25, at about 6:35 p.m. on Oct. 23, 2005, near Finch Ave. W. and Martin Grove Rd.
Cops said the bullets came from two shooters in the back seat in what they suspect was a drug or gun buy gone awry.
Two men in their early 20s were seen fleeing the scene. And on the Toronto Police Service’s cold case board, the murders are listed as unsolved 15 years after the fact.
It is highly doubtful the murders are connected other than by sheer, horrific coincidence and curse.
But there you have it: Two separate double murders, both unsolved and neither looking as though they’ll be cleared any time soon.
Homicide in all its forms is horrific. A blight that can stretch over generations, carrying profound consequences for everyone touched by its vile hand.
Unsolved murders are worse. If answers were readily apparent, police would have made an arrest and there would be some sense of closure.
Instead, there are only questions.
For the Rehmtulla family, the heavy freight they have to carry isn’t one son cruelly taken, it’s two.
That is a struggle few of us could ever bear.
Police have appealed to the public for dashcam or home or business surveillance video from the area of Iroquois Shore Rd. and Eighth Line in Oakville between midnight and 3:30 a.m. on May 16, 2020.
If you have any video during that time frame, you are asked to contact the homicide tip line at 905-825-4776 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.