Living In Fear

Apartment Tenants Recognize Hijackers, Fear Reprisals

by Jason Botchford and Tom Godfrey
The Toronto Sun
September 28, 2001

 


As police sifted through evidence, residents of a Toronto apartment complex were stricken with fear over claims at least two of the suspected suicide hijackers had roamed their halls in the months leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

Some tenants in a Jameson Ave. complex suggested they saw at least two men in their building -- Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi -- who were later accused of hijacking two of the U.S. airliners in the Sept. 11 attacks.

Atta is believed to have piloted American Airlines Flight 11 that plowed into the north tower of the World Trade Center. Al-Shehhi is suspected of flying United Airlines Flight 175 that crashed into the Pentagon. "There is a terrible feeling here ... that we probably lived among terrorists," said a tenant identified as Chris who lived in the same building where Nabil Al-Marabh -- described as a close associate of prime suspect Osama bin Laden -- stayed.

Two other tenants said they recognized Al-Shehhi from a photo in a newspaper.

"Many of the residents have been picking out the same man when they looked at the photos of the (suspected) hijackers," said Donna Dunphy, the superintendent of the Jameson Ave. building -- one of four sites raided late Wednesday by police collecting information on a suspected terrorist cell.

"People are petrified," Dunphy said. "The tenants are scared" there could be reprisals.

Workers at a pharmacy around the corner from the Jameson Ave. building said they immediately recognized from newspaper photographs Mohamed Atta, believed to be the ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. and a cousin of Al-Shehhi.

RCMP Const. Howard Adams said reported Toronto sightings of some of the 19 named hijackers are being investigated.

SIMULTANEOUS RAIDS

RCMP officers yesterday went over evidence seized after dozens of RCMP, Toronto Police and Peel officers conducted the simultaneous raids at Best Copy Printing, on Charles St. W., and Toronto apartments at 130 Jameson Ave., 190 Woolner Ave., and 121 Agnes St., in Mississauga.

Police are focused on phone records and money trails that could lead to other suspects here and in the U.S. responsible for Sept. 11 attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C.

Adams said the warrants for the searches have been ordered sealed.

Police allege they've found some "interesting" items among the evidence that could provide links to some of the 200 Islamic men detained by the FBI since the attacks. They also seized several blank Canadian immigration forms, as well as fake forms already bearing photos.

Officers spent five hours at the copy shop gathering paper stock, chemicals, and plastic lamination. Police allege the shop may have been used for manufacturing fake IDs for some of the suspected terrorists.

Court documents show Best Copy is owned by Ahmad Shehab, who listed his mailing address as Jameson Ave., which was among the addresses searched by police.

Shehab is the uncle of Toronto refugee claimant Nabil Al-Marabh, 35, who was arrested in Chicago last week.

He was sought by the RCMP for skipping court after being charged with allegedly having a fake passport.

Shehab doesn't face any charges.

Many Jameson Ave. residents questioned why police waited so long to raid Shehab's apartment after Al-Marabh was arrested.

Several tenants alleged they had seen a man late at night during the past week, taking away boxes from the apartment.


Copyright 2001 Sun Media Corporation

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