Hamilton paramedics receive 18 month sentence for failing to provide necessaries of life to Yosif Al-Hasnawi

Published January 18, 2022 at 12:36 pm

Hamilton paramedics, Christopher Marchant and Steven Snively were found guilty of failing to provide the necessaries of life to Yosif Al-Hasnawi (pictured), who was shot and killed.

Two Hamilton paramedics who treated a fatally wounded teen as though he had suffered a minor injury will serve an 18-month sentence in the community.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Harrison Arrell handed out his sentence Tuesday (Jan. 18) in the case of Christopher Marchant and Steven Snively, who were found guilty last year of failing to provide the necessaries of life to Yosif Al-Hasnawi.

Prosecutors alleged that the pair approached Al-Hasnawi on the night of Dec. 2, 2017, with the “preconceived notion” he had only a superficial injury from a BB or pellet gun.

But the 19-year-old had in fact been shot with a handgun and died in hospital about an hour later.

In his ruling today, Arrell says that while the paramedics’ moral blameworthiness is “significant” because they did not follow their training, the pair did not cause Yosif’s injuries or intend to treat him negligently.

Marchant and Snively must spend the first six months of their sentence at home except for medical care and other approved appointments, and will have a curfew for the remaining 12 months.

They must also perform 150 hours of community service in the last year of their sentence.

The shooting happened after Al-Haswani, and his family members and friends had attended evening prayers at a mosque. After departing, they intervened to try to stop two people who were allegedly accosting an older man nearby. That led to Al-Haswani being shot in the abdomen.

He was not rushed to a trauma centre, which Justice Harrison Arrell found would have been necessary in order to increase his chances of survival. Marchant and Snively’s defence counsel argued that they believed the teenager had a pellet gun wound.

Numerous witnesses told the court and Justice Arrell that the paramedics took too long to treat Al-Haswani and transport him. He was also not taken to a trauma centre.

–with files from The Canadian Press

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